New Biden administration student debt relief program will help nearly 1.2 million North Carolinians
Under the Biden administration’s new student debt relief plan, more than one million North Carolinians will be able to save thousands of dollars or even have their student loans forgiven, The News & Observer reported.
Most of those impacted by the new plan were low-income students who were awarded federal Pell Grants to attend college. The student loan debt relief program is focused on providing loan relief for working and middle-class people.
- The U.S. Department of Education estimates that nearly 1.2 million borrowers in North Carolina are now eligible for debt relief. Of those, 785,000 of them could get up to $20,000 in relief because they attended college on Pell Grants. Other borrowers could receive up to $10,000 in relief. Nearly half of our state’s borrowers have $20,000 or less in outstanding student loan balances.
- According to the Biden administration, around 90% of relief will go to individuals earning less than $75,000 per year and no one in the top 5% of incomes will receive any relief.
- According to The News & Observer, the debt relief program will help younger North Carolinians because those 34 and younger are the majority of borrowers with federal loan debt.
Borrowers will still have to pay state taxes on the forgiven loans, but Gov. Roy Cooper has asked legislators to waive the state income tax just as they did with business loans. Unfortunately, and unsurprisingly, Republican leaders in the General Assembly have not shown a willingness to waive the taxes.
More information on the student debt relief program is available by clicking here.
