By Nakisha Horne
Staff Writer
There are a lot of people who are met with the struggle to pay for an education. The majority of both adolescents and adults struggle financially and apply for student loans. This allows them to receive an education, but the loans still must be repaid for eventually. As a result, every student who takes a loan for education will be in debt until all loans have been paid off.
President Joe Biden campaigned on a promise to reduce student loan debt. His administration is making good on that promise and giving families relief by taking the initial steps towards launching his loan forgiveness program, under which eligible borrowers will be granted a debt forgiveness package of up to $20,000.
An analysis conducted by the United States Department of Education found that the typical undergraduate borrower graduates has over $25,000 worth of debt. Thus, many students will have their loans forgiven almost in full thanks to this initiative (The White House, 2022).
While Biden’s plan to cancel student debts will free people from much of their student debt and allow them to use more of their income toward their lifestyle, the program does not include private loan borrowers. Students who have borrowed from private loan companies will not qualify for the forgiveness program.
For those that want to find out if you do qualify the instructions are as follows.
Go to studentaid.gov and in the section on student loan debt relief, click “Apply Now.”
Be prepared to enter some basic personal information. The form asks for: name, Social Security
Number, date of birth, phone number and email address. It does not require documentation about your income or your student loans.
Next, review the eligibility rules and confirm that you’re a match. For most people, that means attesting that they make less than $125,000 a year or that their household makes less than $250,000 a year. If you meet the eligibility rules, click the box confirming that everything you provided is true. Then click “Submit.”
After the form is submitted, the Biden administration says it should take four to six weeks to process. The Education Department will use its existing records to make sure your loans are eligible and to look for applicants who might exceed the income limits. Some will be asked to provide additional documentation to prove their incomes. The Education Department estimates that the verification application will take about half an hour, including time to review and upload tax documents (The White House, 2022).
Student loan debt affects billions of people and it is impossible to not realize the harm that it has done. Awareness could be raised and colleges should consider reducing tuition rather than eliminate it would help improve our nation. An education must serve to inspire and motivate creativity in as many work fields as possible. A society that is excellent is one that has opportunities for each and every person.
As a reminder: Be sure to file your 2022-2023 FAFSA now!
- The IRS Data Retrieval Tool (DRT) is online for the 2022-2023 year. This is generally the quickest way to verify your income information.
- The application for the 2023-2024 year will open on October 1, 2022. Early applicants will receive priority for several grants and other programs that have limited funding.
Information can be located at https://www.cameron.edu/financial_aid