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The U.S. Department of Education said the fixes are an attempt to address "historical failures" in its administration of the federal student loan program.
FILE PHOTO: Jeanie Lindsay/IPB NewsMore than 19,000 eligible Indiana borrowers will have part or all of their student loans discharges following federal action taken last week by the Biden administration. The U.S. Department of Education's data shows more than $932 million will be automatically discharged for borrowers in Indiana.
The Biden administration announced the discharges as fixes to the income-driven repayment plans, which are designed to forgive any remaining federal student loan balance if a borrower can make regular monthly payments for 20 to 25 years. The U.S. Department of Education said the fixes are an attempt to address "historical failures" in its administration of the federal student loan program. According to the Biden administration, some qualifying payments were not counted toward borrowers' loan forgiveness.
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The fixes implemented will discharge $39 billion worth of student loans across the country and result in student loan forgiveness for more than 800,000 borrowers in the U.S.
The U.S. Department of Education said it started notifying eligible borrowers last Friday. Borrowers are not required to take any further action and the discharges are expected to begin 30 days after notifications are sent.
Kirsten is the education reporter for Indiana Public Broadcsting. Contact her at kadair@wfyi.org or follow her on Twitter at @kirsten_adair.
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