(C) Common Dreams
This story was originally published by Common Dreams and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



FACT SHEET: Biden-Harris Administration Releases New Data Showing 26 Million People in All 50 States Applied or Were Automatically Eligible for One-Time Student Debt Relief [1]

['The White House']

Date: 2023-01-27

New data comes as elected officials and special interests actively block many of their own constituents from getting relief

Today, the Biden-Harris Administration released new data showing the number of people in each state who applied for student debt relief or were automatically eligible for relief. These borrowers could be benefitting from the Administration’s program right now were it not for lawsuits brought by elected officials and special interests. In August, President Biden announced his Administration’s plan to provide up to $20,000 in debt relief for borrowers earning less than $125,000 per year. The Administration’s program aimed to protect borrowers most at risk of delinquency or default as a result of hardships brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic when the payment pause ends.

In the less than four weeks that the application was available, 26 million people either applied for debt relief or had already provided sufficient information to the Department of Education (Department) to be deemed eligible for relief. Over 16 million of those borrowers’ applications were fully approved by the Department and sent to loan servicers. However, in November of last year– less than a month after the application was first released – the Department was required to stop accepting applications as a result of lawsuits brought by opponents of the program. Loan servicers were thus prevented from discharging any debt.

Overall, more than 40 million borrowers would qualify for the Biden Administration’s debt relief program. Nearly 90% of the benefits of the relief going to out-of-school borrowers would go to those earning less than $75,000 per year. Millions of those borrowers could be experiencing the benefits of that relief today – were it not for lawsuits brought on by elected officials in some of their own states. For more information, visit StudentAid.gov/debtrelief.

Below is a full breakdown of how many people applied for debt relief and whose applications were approved by the Department before the Administration was blocked from discharging debt, rounded to the nearest thousand.

State Number of people who

applied or were deemed

automatically eligible for relief Number of fully-approved

applications sent to loan servicers

for discharge Alabama 373,000 238,000 Alaska 38,000 24,000 Arizona 496,000 314,000 Arkansas 222,000 144,000 California 2,315,000 1,473,000 Colorado 471,000 295,000 Connecticut 321,000 208,000 Delaware 81,000 52,000 District of Columbia 72,000 46,000 Florida 1,598,000 1,047,000 Georgia 1,012,000 642,000 Hawaii 74,000 46,000 Idaho 126,000 79,000 Illinois 1,044,000 679,000 Indiana 542,000 348,000 Iowa 264,000 169,000 Kansas 228,000 143,000 Kentucky 362,000 241,000 Louisiana 381,000 242,000 Maine 116,000 74,000 Maryland 522,000 323,000 Massachusetts 593,000 380,000 Michigan 864,000 566,000 Minnesota 507,000 327,000 Mississippi 248,000 160,000 Missouri 484,000 305,000 Montana 75,000 46,000 Nebraska 154,000 97,000 Nevada 198,000 128,000 New Hampshire 121,000 77,000 New Jersey 759,000 493,000 New Mexico 125,000 77,000 New York 1,549,000 998,000 North Carolina 812,000 522,000 North Dakota 53,000 32,000 Ohio 1,079,000 702,000 Oklahoma 270,000 172,000 Oregon 329,000 211,000 Pennsylvania 1,157,000 743,000 Puerto Rico 204,000 145,000 Rhode Island 96,000 63,000 South Carolina 442,000 282,000 South Dakota 73,000 46,000 Tennessee 517,000 336,000 Texas 2,163,000 1,391,000 Utah 191,000 121,000 Vermont 52,000 33,000 Virginia 685,000 429,000 Washington 486,000 308,000 West Virginia 131,000 85,000 Wisconsin 465,000 302,000 Wyoming 30,000 18,000 All Other Locations* 58,000 33,000 State Not Identified** 632,000 31,000 Total 26,260,000 16,486,000

* Borrowers who are in outlying territories, military zones, or currently outside of the United States

** Includes individuals for whom the Department of Education did not have an address on file or from whom more information was needed at the time that the program was blocked.

###

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/01/27/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-releases-new-data-showing-26-million-people-in-all-50-states-applied-or-were-automatically-eligible-for-one-time-student-debt-relief/

Published and (C) by Common Dreams
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0..

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/commondreams/