Student Loan Forgiveness 2022

Updated list of what we know so far.

This page will be updated as we learn more about the student loan forgiveness process. If you have questions, feel free to email [email protected] but also check with your loan servicer as well. 

Note: if you are unsure if your loans are federal or private, please contact your service provider.

• $20,000 forgiveness for PELL grant recipients
• $10,000 forgiveness for non-PELL recipients
• Forgiveness for individuals earning under $125,000, couples earning under $250,000 and head of households earning under $250,000.
• If a student is a dependent, they will use their parents income instead of their own.
• If the department of education has income information on file, forgiveness may occur quickly. Others will need to wait until the application is published, the goal per the education secretary is the application will be open in early October, and apply by November 15th to have it effective by teh end of 2022. See tweet here: https://twitter.com/seccardona/status/1563275159204958208 
• You can sign up to be notified when the application is open on this site: https://www.ed.gov/subscriptions
• Debt relief will NOT be treated as taxable income for federal tax purposes.
• Parent Plus loans are federal (if they have not been refinanced into private loans) and will get up to $10,000 of forgiveness if the parents income is below the threshold (apparently confirmed by an official person on twitter).

• Supposedly you can use 2020 or 2021 income will help you qualify for forgiveness, using adjusted gross income (AGI). Many government programs use modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) so I will update this post when I get more information.
• It looks like the $10,000 can be for undergraduate or graduate loans, but the additional $10,000 for PELL recipients is undergraduate only. I cannot confirm this and will update when I know more.
• Those who paid off their loans since March 2020 may be able to get a refund equal to the forgiveness amount. This is not yet confirmed, and it does not include private loans. If you consolidated to private loans there are no forgiveness options. Only current federal loans are included. 

• Income-driven repayment plans cut from 10% to 5% of discretionary income for undergraduate loans.
• The formula for what is considered non-discretionary income will change so that discretionary income may be lower for many borrowers, lowering payments.
• For borrowers with original loan balances $12,000 or less, income-driven debt forgiveness is reduced from 20 years to 10 years.
• Interest will not accrue on balances in the income-driven repayment program.
• Starting in 2023, will be able to permit the Department of Education to automatically pull income information to avoid re-certifying income each year.

Have questions? Email [email protected].