How to sign up for SAVE, the student-loan repayment plan Biden officials are calling a 'game changer'

Student-loan borrowers can officially enroll in a new repayment plan that the Biden administration is touting as a “game changer,” with roughly six weeks left before student-debt payments are expected to resume for the first time in more than three years.

“This is real money President Biden is putting back into the pockets of working families,” Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said of the savings borrowers may see from the SAVE plan. “When borrowers struggle to make ends meet, we’re not going to kick them while they’re down. SAVE is the first true student-loan safety net in the country.”

The SAVE plan aims to deal with some of these issues. Starting when payments resume, the government will cover any unpaid interest for borrowers in the plan. That means borrowers won’t see their loan balance tick up even if their payment is so low that it doesn’t pay for the interest. Borrowers whose original principal balances are $12,000 or less will only have to pay for 10 years under SAVE before having their debt canceled. In other income-driven plans, borrowers had to pay for at least 20 years before accessing forgiveness. The Biden administration estimates that this provision will allow 85% of borrowers who borrowed to attend community college to be debt-free within 10 years.

Last year, the Department of Education acknowledged that borrowers’ progress toward forgiveness under IDR plans wasn’t being counted correctly, due in part to servicer error. The agency reviewed borrowers’ accounts for payments that should have been credited toward forgiveness, and recently started canceling the debt of more than 800,000 borrowers who were in repayment for more than 20 years.

The government is counting on advocacy organizations to help ensure borrowers know about the plan and how to access it. The Department of Education launched an outreach campaign Tuesday in partnership with nonprofit organizations, including the NAACP and the Student Debt Crisis Center, to promote SAVE and other debt-forgiveness programs.

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Bay Area residents face challenges qualifying for Biden SAVE student loan repayment planWhen President Joe Biden introduced his student loan repayment plan Saving on a Valuable Education – better known as SAVE – some borrowers in the Bay Area didn't waste time figuring out if they could qualify for lower payments.
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