Biden plans to cancel $10,000 in student debt for borrowers earning less than $150,000 per year

Latest reports claim, President Joe Biden is sticking to his campaign promise to forgive $10,000 in student debt per borrower — but with conditions.

According to three people familiar with the situation, Biden's latest loan forgiveness plan includes $10,000 in relief for federal borrowers earning less than $150,000 in the previous year, or less than $300,000 for married couples filing jointly, as reported by the Washington Post on Friday. This income level is slightly higher than previous reports that Biden was thinking about capping relief for those earning less than $125,000.

"No decisions have been made yet," White House spokesperson Vedant Patel told the Post.

While the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week that Biden planned to make an announcement about student loan forgiveness while delivering a commencement speech at the University of Delaware on Saturday, White House officials told the Post that timeline has been pushed back due to the shooting in Uvalde, Texas.

Borrowers have been waiting to hear if their debt balances will be reduced. Biden stated nearly a month ago that a decision on relief would be made in the coming weeks, and the only certainty he provided to the public was that he was not considering $50,000 in relief, which many progressive lawmakers have been advocating for. Even though reports suggest that income caps will provide less relief, they haven't given up.

Senators Elizabeth Warren, Chuck Schumer, and Raphael Warnock met with Vice President Joe Biden last week to encourage him to go big on relief and defer executive action until he considers loan forgiveness for everyone.

On Tuesday, Warnock stated, "My message is that we need to eliminate student debt, and we can't do that soon enough." "It also needs to be large and significant enough to make a difference in the lives of Georgia families who work hard."

While many Republicans have criticized the idea of broad student-loan forgiveness, arguing that it would disproportionately favor the wealthiest Americans, some Democrats have questioned cutting the wealthiest Americans out of the relief, which Biden is exploring. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York earlier told the Washington Post that she "doesn't believe in a cutoff," especially for "so many front-line employees who are drowning in debt and would likely be excluded from assistance."

Still, the relief plans could alter, and the timing of the announcement is unknown — but borrowers will know before student-loan payments resume after August 31, according to numerous administration officials.

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