Background Info on the Biden-Harris Administration’s Student Debt Relief Plan:
During March of 2020, the Trump Administration, in an effort to help people who were struggling financially due to the pandemic, put a pause on student loan payments. Now, with pandemic-related support expiring, the Biden-Harris Administration has put forth a three part plan. This plan aims to help people transition back into their regular payment plan. The first step of this plan is to extend the repayment pause. The second step is to forgive $10,000 or $20,000–depending if you are a Pell Grant recipient or not–of qualifying borrowers’ current student debt. And the third step is to create a new income-driven repayment plan.
For more information on the three part plan or to see if you are a qualifying borrower, follow this link.
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How the Biden-Harris Administration’s Student Debt Relief Plan is Going:
The Biden-Harris Administration is looking to forgive up to $20,000 of people’s student debt. For more background information, read the previous section. Although, various state courts have challenged the act. The filed lawsuits are currently blocking the Biden-Harris Administration from forgiving people’s student debt.
In response to the temporary block, Biden confidently stated that he believed they would win the court case and that the checks would go out within two weeks. This statement was taken October 27th.
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The Misinterpretation of Biden’s “Checks Going Out:”
The following tweet was then posted by The Hill: https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1585939690959642626?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
This tweet along with Biden’s term “checks” has led to some confusion as seen in the following Tik-Toks:
This video was posted on both @Jordan_the_stallion8 ’s Tik-Tok and Instagram account. His Instagram account has 136 thousand followers and his Tik-Tok has over 5.7 million. His post on instagram has garnered over 140,000 views and received 14,400 likes. His post on Tik-Tok has over 774,000 views with 101,100 likes.
This video, by @thecindynoir, has a similar message. She has 581.5 thousand followers on Tik-Tok and 113 thousand followers on Instagram. Her post received 44,600 likes and has 433,700 views on Tik-Tok. On Instagram, she has received 26,700 likes and 322,000 views.
These videos, which collectively received well over a million views as of November 1 at noon CDT, continue to garner more likes and more views. The misinformation continues to spread leading people to misinterpret how the Student Loan Forgiveness plan will work.
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How the Student Loan Forgiveness Plan Works:
These “checks” will not be mailed out to people nor are the people responsible for determining which of their loans to pay off first. If the Biden-Harris Administration successfully wins the court case, then the people who applied for the forgiveness plan will see a reduction in their loan accounts. The debts are being canceled by the service providers with the intention of paying off any default loans and then loans with the highest interest rates.
The only people that could receive a refund in their account are the qualifying borrowers that made voluntary payments during the loan payment pause. For more information, follow this link.
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Sources:
https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/27/politics/biden-student-loan-forgiveness
https://www.newsweek.com/student-loan-debt-relief-checks-could-mailed-two-weeks-biden-says-1755288
https://www.npr.org/2022/10/28/1132107116/biden-student-loans-debt-forgiveness-faq