Biden’s latest round of student loan handouts brings admin total to more than 5 million

President Biden More than 150,000 people announced student loan approvals Monday, with the White House hinting at a total of more than 5 million beneficiaries during the president’s tenure.

With just a week left in office, Biden said his administration has “taken historic action to reduce the student debt burden, hold bad actors accountable and fight on behalf of students across the country.”

“These 150,000 borrowers include: nearly 85,000 borrowers who attended schools that cheated and defrauded their students, 61,000 borrowers with total and permanent disabilities, and 6,100 public service workers,” Biden said in a statement.

Biden boasted that his administration also provided a record increase to the maximum amount of Pell Grants in the last 10 years.

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President Biden has made reducing student debt a priority during his administration. (Ron Sachs/Getty Images)

“I promised to provide higher education A ticket to the middle class, not a barrier to opportunity, and I’m proud to say we’ve forgiven more student loan debt than any other administration in history,” Biden said.

Last month, two student loan repayment plans were reopened for registration by the Department of Education (DOE) in defiance of a federal court order. The Biden administration Savings on Value Education (SAVE) program.

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President Biden speaks during an event on April 8, 2024 in Madison, Wisconsin. (Daniel Steinle/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)

New enrollment in the Pay As You Earn (PAYE) and Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR) programs was suspended last summer in an effort to phase them out and encourage borrowers to sign up for the Biden-Harris administration’s SAVE program, but now people can: register again.

The two renewed plans offer credit for Public Service Loan Forgiveness and income-based repayment. Monthly payments are set by the borrower’s earnings, family size and allow borrowers to receive forgiveness after “extended payment periods,” the DOE said.

Melissa Byrne, center, joins student loan borrowers demanding President Biden use ‘Plan B’ to immediately cancel student debt during a rally outside the United States Supreme Court on June 30, 2023 in Washington. (Paul Morrig/We 45 Million/Getty Images)

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New PAYE and ICR registrations will be open until 1 July 2027, the DOE said.