President Biden has announced an additional $5 billion in student loan forgiveness, benefiting another 74,000 Americans, including professionals such as teachers, nurses, and firefighters. This development is part of ongoing efforts to rectify issues within the student loan system, particularly after the Supreme Court's blockage of a broader loan forgiveness program last summer.

The total amount of debt forgiven under the Biden administration now reaches $136.6 billion, aiding over 3.7 million borrowers. This latest round of forgiveness results from improvements in the administration's handling of income-driven repayment (IDR) forgiveness and Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) programs. The Department of Education has made strides in more accurately counting payments towards these forgiveness programs.

Key aspects of this new relief include:

• A week prior, the administration announced that individuals with less than $12,000 in student loans and who have been paying for at least 10 years will have their remaining balances canceled.
• Borrowers must be enrolled in the White House's new Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) repayment plan.
• Of the latest group approved for debt relief, nearly 44,000 are public servants with at least 10 years of service, and the rest are borrowers with 20 years of payments who hadn’t received relief through existing plans.

The breakdown of the $5 billion relief includes:

• $1.7 billion for 29,700 borrowers due to administrative adjustments in IDR payment counts, part of a larger $45.7 billion relief effort affecting 930,500 borrowers.
• $3.2 billion for 43,000 borrowers under the PSLF program, totaling $56.7 billion for 793,400 borrowers since late 2021.

The Education Department has addressed issues with incorrect payment counts that previously hindered borrowers' progress towards loan forgiveness. Regarding the SAVE plan, approximately 6.9 million borrowers are enrolled, with about 3.9 million of these having monthly payments of $0.