Last week, the Biden Administration announced it is forgiving $39 billion in federal student loan debt for 804,000 borrowers to address “historical failures” by the federal student loan program.
 
This process began last April, when the Biden Administration announced it was implementing a one-time account adjustment for borrowers enrolled in Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) whose payments were not counted toward forgiveness appropriately – similar to the Department of Education’s earlier Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) discharges.
 
Per the announcement, the Administration will give borrowers of Direct and FFEL loans credit for payments toward forgiveness for the following periods: 

• Any month in which a borrower was in a repayment status, regardless of whether payments were partial or late, the type of loan, or the repayment plan;
• Any period in which a borrower spent 12 or more consecutive months in forbearance;
• Any month in forbearance for borrowers who spent 36 or more cumulative months in forbearance;
• Any month spent in deferment (except for in-school deferment) prior to 2013; and
• Any month spent in economic hardship or military deferments on or after January 1, 2013.

The periods above also count for consolidated loans if they occurred before or after the loan consolidation, and Parent PLUS loans of either type.
 
The Department will update the forgiveness threshold counts every two months until 2024, which is when all borrowers currently ineligible for forgiveness will have their payment counts updated. These months are also eligible for PSLF if the borrower can document qualifying employment during the same periods.
 
The Administration has begun outreach to borrowers about their forgiveness and discharges will begin 30 days after outreach emails are sent. This new administrative action brings the total amount of loan forgiveness by the Biden Administration to $116.6 billion.