Student Loan Forgiveness
American Bankruptcy Institute (“ABI”) article reports that a Court filing alleges that the US Education Department is Moving Slowly on Student Loan Forgiveness, and has a large backlog of requests from student loan borrowers for income-driven repayment plans, to repay the borrowers US Dept of Education school loans: Plan Backlog
The Trump administration continues to move slowly in processing a massive backlog of applications from hundreds of thousands of student loan borrowers seeking debt forgiveness or an affordable repayment plan, a new court filing shows, CNBC.com reported. As of the end of November, 802,730 requests to transfer into an income-driven repayment plan remain pending with the Department of Education. IDR plans limit a borrower’s monthly bill to a share of their discretionary income and cancel any remaining debt after a certain period, typically 20 years or 25 years. Another 80,210 applications were still under review with the agency for Public Service Loan Forgiveness Buyback. That program allows certain public servants with 120 months of qualifying public service employment to retroactively pay for any months they missed because of a forbearance or deferment. Just 170 student loan borrowers enrolled in an IDR plan had their debt canceled during November, the agency reported, with 280 discharges issued for the month under PSLF. It’s unclear how the federal government shutdown — which spanned Oct. 1 to Nov. 12 — may have affected application processing during November. In its court filing, the agency only notes that the shutdown affected its ability to provide an exact number of new applications received that month. Over 42 million Americans hold student loans, and the outstanding debt exceeds $1.6 trillion, according to the Congressional Research Service.