Biden To Automatically Cancel $5.8 Billion In Student Loans For Over 300,000 Borrowers

Aug 19, 2021,11:26am EDT

The Biden administration announced on Thursday that it will be automatically wiping out the federal student loan debt for 323,000 borrowers.

The administration will be cancelling borrowers’ federal student loan debt through the Total and Permanent Disability (TPD) discharge program. The TPD Discharge program allows student loan borrowers who are unable to maintain substantial, gainful employment due to a physical or psychological medical impairment to get their federal student loans cancelled. However, to get student loans forgiven under the program, disabled student loan borrowers must submit a formal application, which can be challenging for those facing serious health issues.

Advocates have long argued that the Department of Education has the ability and the authority to automatically grant TPD Discharges to disabled student loan borrowers who are receiving disability benefits through Social Security (provided that they have a disability review period of at least five to seven years). The Social Security Administration had previously identified hundreds of thousands of disabled student loan borrowers who would qualify for TPD discharges, and the agency has shared that information with the Department of Education, but the Department had not acted.

On Thursday, that finally changed, and the Department of Education will move forward in automatically discharging approximately $5.8 billion in federal student loans for disabled borrowers identified by the Social Security Administration as eligible. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona characterized the action as "in alignment with our strategies from day one to put our borrowers at the center of the conversation... Today's action removes a major barrier that prevented far too many borrowers with disabilities from receiving the total and permanent disability discharges they are entitled to under the law,” he said.