Student loan debt forgiveness arrives for some borrowers as payments resume for others

Another 125,000 student loan borrowers will have $9 billion in student loan debt erased, the Biden administration said Wednesday. 

Those borrowers were already eligible for cancellation through various programs: Public Service Loan Forgiveness for people working as teachers and health care workers, for instance; income-driven repayment plans that link payments to wages and forgive balances after 20 or 25 years of payments; or discharges for those with disabilities.

$5.2 billion for 53,000 borrowers who worked for at least a decade in eligible public service fields such as teaching or the military;

Nearly $2.8 billion for nearly 51,000 borrowers through adjustments to income-driven repayment plans. These individuals had been in repayment for two decades or more and finally reached the threshold of payments for forgiveness; and

$1.2 billion for nearly 22,000 borrowers who have permanent disabilities and were identified through a social security data match.