Biden Administration to Cancel Student Debt for over 300,000 Disabled People

On Thursday, August 19, 2021, the Biden administration and other leading officials announced that they will be erasing the student for over 300,000 Americans with severe disabilities who are no longer able to earn significant income to pay off their loans.

This erases over $5.8 billion in debt, according to data from the United States Department of Education.

Miguel Cardona, Department of Education secretary, said in a statement, “We’ve heard loud and clear from borrowers with disabilities and advocates about the need for this change and we are excited to follow through on it.”

There have been calls from millions of Americans to fully cancel student loans and this first erasure wave may be the first of others to come.

Part of the reason for the erasure has been that millions of severely disabled have been unable to provide proof of income for their earnings, causing their loans to be reinstated.

Thousands of disability advocates have been pushing to eliminate the monitoring period of student debt which would already offer millions of dollars of debt relief to those whom the Social Security Administration has identified as “permanently disabled”.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts have urged President Joe Biden to erase $50,000 of student debt for all borrowers, regardless of their status as permanently disabled or otherwise, in order to kick start the economy.