Federal Student Loans – What You Need to Know Now
This post was updated on November 11, 2022. For the latest information about the proposed federal Student Loan Debt Relief Plan, visit https://studentaid.gov/.
As of November 11, 2022, courts have issued orders blocking the federal student debt relief program. As a result, at this time, the Department of Education is not accepting applications its Student Loan Debt Relief Plan. If you have already applied, the Department of Education has said it will hold your application.
Payments and interest on most federal student loans have been paused since early 2020, when the Trump Administration introduced the policy due to the emerging pandemic. Since then, the pause has been extended multiple times. On August 24, 2022, the Biden Administration announced an extension of the federal student loan payment and interest pause through December 31, 2022, as well as plans to cancel a portion of federal student loan debt.
As of August 24, 2022, measures included the following:
You can log in to your Federal Student Aid account and view your FSA Dashboard. You should see a breakdown of your federal student loans and grants.
Visit https://studentaid.gov/debt-relief-announcement/ for more information.
These measures are tied to federal student loans and do not impact any private student loans you may hold (including those you may have with your credit union). Many private student loan borrowers also have federal student loans. If you are in this situation, we encourage you to contact your federal student loan servicer to see if you qualify for some level of cancellation on your federal student loan debt.
Federal student loans are made and funded directly by the federal government. Private student loans are made and funded by private lenders, such as credit unions, banks, and online lenders.
The forgiveness is tied to existing federal student loans. If you opted to refinance your federal student loans into a private student loan in order to gain a lower rate or longer repayment term, that new refinance loan is not eligible for this cancellation.
These measures are tied to federal student loans and do not impact any private student loans you may hold.