Federal Student Loan Forgiveness Means Millions For W.Va. Borrowers

On Wednesday the Biden administration announced $1.2 billion in student debt cancellation for almost 153,000 borrowers. New data released Friday shows the effects on West Virginia.

Over a thousand West Virginians will have $8.8 million in student loans canceled. Texas leads the nation with more than 14,000 recipients having $116.6 million in student loans forgiven, while Wyoming had the lowest amount of forgiveness with 150 borrowers having $1 million canceled.

Kirabo Jackson, a member of the Council of Economic Advisers, said this round of loan forgiveness is for borrowers enrolled in the Saving on a Valuable Education or SAVE repayment plan that have been in repayment for 10 years and took out $12,000 or less in student loans.

“In order to ensure that the burden of college debt does not reduce the benefits of having a college degree, the Biden administration has basically rolled out this new income driven repayment plan called SAVE,” he said. 

Jackson said the program ties the payments that people make to their income levels and family size, not to the size of the loan itself. 

“It means that early in someone’s career, when they’re not making a lot of money, their payments are going to be relatively low,” he said. “In fact, they can actually be zero, if their incomes are too low to basically be able to make payments, while also having enough money for groceries and necessities of life.”

Borrowers who believe they meet the criteria above are encouraged to immediately sign up for SAVE at StudentAid.gov/SAVE.

In total, the Biden Administration has now approved debt cancellation for nearly 3.9 million student loan borrowers totaling almost $138 billion in debt relief.