RALEIGH, N.C. – The possibility of student loan forgiveness has hung just out of reach for several years now, but debt forgiveness is on the way for thousands of student borrowers across the country.

What You Need To Know

  • More than 800,000 student borrowers received an email forgiving their student loans

  • The Biden administration has forgiven $127 billion in debt so far

  • This relief targets specific borrowers who may not have been eligible for forgiveness previously 

Just over 800,000 people with student loans received an email from President Biden, informing them their loans have been forgiven. So far the Biden administration has canceled more than $127 billion in loan debt for nearly 3.6 million borrowers.

Brittany Bryant is a student borrower, who has both private and federal student loans, but doesn’t hold out much hope for getting forgiveness and instead is slowly working to pay off her years of college.

Bryant has chosen to put her dream of attending law school on hold while she pays off prior student loans. (Spectrum News 1/Rachel Boyd)

“I feel very fortunate and very blessed to have had the experience I had, I just wish maybe I knew a bit more about what sacrifice it would require for the next several decades maybe of my life,” Bryant said. 

The back-and-forth in the federal government over loan relief has left her very unclear on the policies and who or what loans may be eligible. 

“If you're going to forgive some student debt, that means there's something wrong with it or the administration views part of it as unjust,” Bryant said. “But if it's random, if it's not all of it, if it's only up to a certain amount, why and what exactly is that saying?”

Bryant is concerned that debt forgiveness doesn’t address the root of the problem or provide long-term financial relief for students.

“If they just forgave everyone's loans, but tuition continued to cost 70, 80K a year, that's not solving the problem,” Bryant said.

This particular loan forgiveness plan targets borrowers who weren’t credited for payments that would have made them eligible for student loan forgiveness under income-driven repayment plans. In August, President Biden launched the SAVE plan – which decreases monthly payments for borrowers - more than 5.5 million people have signed up so far. 

“It's really difficult for most people who are 17, 18 to understand what this money means and how much money it is,” Bryant said. “You start out in your twenties now as a graduate on the wrong foot.”

She says she would like to see relief be a need-based program even if it means she’s waiting a while for forgiveness.