The effort to boost enrollment in the income-driven repayment program comes as student loan payments resume for the first time since March 2020.
President Joe Biden on Tuesday launched a promotional blitz for his new program that helps student loan borrowers repay their debt, just weeks before millions of Americans are set to receive a loan bill for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic.
The Biden administration is mobilizing to convince borrowers across the country to sign up for the new income-driven repayment program — dubbed the “SAVE plan” — which caps interest accrual and lowers the monthly payment amount for many borrowers.
“It’s the most affordable student loan plan ever,” Biden said in a video released by the White House on Tuesday, describing the program as a major reform to a student loan system “that hurt borrowers for much too long.”
“If you’re eligible for the SAVE Plan, sign up now so you can lower your monthly payments in advance of payments resuming this fall,” Biden said.
Honestly whatever on the whole repayment thing cause I'm poor and fucked no matter what so... Meh.
But seriously can we fucking stop pretending the poverty line is real or even close to where they say it is? When every single benefits package and plan talks about a 200% increase from base poverty line or $20,000 over the base poverty limit for approval it just means poverty is much more common and a lot more expensive than we want to admit but it would freak out hundreds of thousands to realize just how poor they actually are.
Rip off the bandaid of bullshit poverty line adjustments and just be honest that the average American is low class now.
This article doesn’t really say what the SAVE plan does so I’m reposting this here.
…the SAVE plan is coming in July 2024 to replace REPAYE, with some parts rolling out this summer and all the details here.
The department says that under the old plan, borrowers repaid $10,956 for every $10,000 they borrowed. Under the new plan, they would pay back just $6,121.
It’s more technical than direct forgiveness but will change income-based plans in the following ways according to this NPR article:
Starting Summer 2023:
floor for protected income rising from 150% to 225% of poverty line
no interest while payments are being made
Starting Summer 2024:
payments now based on 5% rather than 10% of borrowers’ remaining income
those who borrow $12,000 or less can gain full forgiveness in 10 years rather than 20 (with each additional $1000 adding another year so $13,000=11 years etc.)
It’s a start, hopefully someone sees this and saves some money.
Also want to add that these changes are not subject to Congressional approval. They could be repealed (impossible with a Dem Senate + Presidential veto) or they could be struck down by SCOTUS, but this is all being performed via powers given by the Higher Education Act and are generally on much firmer legal ground than the loan forgiveness plan SCOTUS scuttled.
Oh man that’s great! This is not the complete loan forgiveness I had hoped for but it’s a start and I hope lots more benefit from this especially the ones who needed it the most.
The plan would decrease my payments by about $20/mo and would increase the total amount I would pay. Doesn't seem like it saves me anything. I'm better off continuing to pay my previous minimum payment and pay the loans off early.
I wish they would eliminate/lower the interest rate.
Unfortunately, this new plan seems like it'll increase my payments from about $200/mo to over $900/mo. The calculator says the $900/mo plan comes with an offer of $0 in forgiveness (and says so directly). Even if I keep the $200/mo plan and won't be fully paid off until 2046 or something (vs 2027 at $900/mo), it still offers me $0 in forgiveness.
I still have $36k in loans and have been paying them off since 2005. I've already paid more than I've owed, due to interest. I used to be poor, but not really anymore; that kinda happens over 20 years. I suppose I can be happy everyone else, but this doesn't mean squat for folks like me.
That’s weird. In reading the specifics of the plan, I don’t see how the math would work out towards increasing payments. Unless your income changes significantly, there isn’t really a provision that would increase payments here. It’s designed to drive down interest for all
If his income now is more than it was when he set up his first income based repayment plan I think It would go up. I would expect that to be the case for most people because over time salaries go up
I received an email from studentaid.gov inviting me to apply. It points to a calculator---really a screening-level application---on their site I can use to compare before applying.
This is (i) welfare for the well-to-do, (ii) great incentive for colleges to keep pushing up their tuition fees, and (iii) fiscal stimulus during a critical juncture in the fight to tame inflation. Let it not be said that the Republican Party has a monopoly on bad policy ideas.
I disagree with you, but your position has some sentiments I can understand. So instead of getting angry, downvoting, and throwing a fit, I am just going to respond calmly:
If you look at the actual details of the plan it’s pretty reasonable.
Lowered interest rates for everyone who are making their payments.
Higher threshold for low income earners to get some forgiveness. This counters your “well-to-do” argument.
Explain how you came up with point one. The well to do will not qualify or benefit from this at all. Its based on income and is definitely skewed to benefit well off people at all.
College graduates receive a big wage premium; over a lifetime, average earnings of graduates exceed those of nongraduates by about $1M. Yes, people who just graduated may not be earning high incomes today, but project things out over decades and it's clear this is not the group in need of support.
In fact, given the magic of compound interest, we would expect a college loan forgiveness programme to greatly increase the net financial position of graduates versus nongraduates, on top of what the graduate earnings premium already achieves. Hence increasing the overall level of wealth inequality in the country.
Not sure how you decided this seeing as this benefits people at the poverty line and not the wealthy. Sure, anything can encourage schools to push up tuition prices, but there's literally a bill in play right now to cap tuition prices. It's not loan forgiveness, but it's far better than nothing. Also, the financial impact is a pittance. It's not the 50k per borrower floated in 2020. It's not even the 10k the scotus shot down.
I'm well to do now? This is for me and I consider not eating for 48 hours at a time because the price of food rn is bonkers to be a solid financial decision.
You’re wrong about (i) and (iii) - seriously who does that? - but as someone whose kids will be starting college in a few years I agree with (ii).
We need to find a way to get everyone who is capable a college education without needing loans. Apart from my own personal interests, there is a huge amount of brain power wasted by not having education freely available.
Saw an article earlier today that over 60% of borrowers are planning to boycott repayment. I still haven't setup an account since my loan got transferred to a new servicer. Seriously considering making them come garnish my wages or something. If enough people do it, the system will almost certainly collapse. I can't imagine all the servicers trying to go through the garnishment process with that many people.
No one actually thought that the guy who exempted student debt from bankruptcy and is owned by the same billionaires that own Republicans was gonna do what he said?
Blocked for the method he used, Roberts said specifically it would have NOT been blocked had he not tried to push it through with the HEROs act. And it would have been allowed by the Higher Education Act of 1965 which grants the President the authority to cancel debt.