Biden administration forgives additional $7.4 billion in student debt

The White House announced on Friday a new round of student debt cancellation, this time amounting to $7.4 billion and benefitting some 277,000 borrowers. Those impacted will start receiving emails on Friday.

Over 200,000 are enrolled in the SAVE plan, while an additional 65,000 are in "income-driven repayment plans and 4,600 through fixes to Public Service Loan Forgiveness," Axios reported.

The announcement comes less than a month after a round of debt forgiveness for about 78,000 public sector workers. In that case, the total amount forgiven was $5.8 billion.

He also canceled $1.2 billion for nearly 153,000 borrowers enrolled in a new repayment plan launched by the administration.

The Biden administration has now forgiven about $153 billion in student loans over the years for a total of 4.3 million.

The government intended to expand the measures last year but the Supreme Court rejected the program, which would have canceled up to $20,000 for low and middle-income borrowers for an estimated total of $430 billion.

The decision was a heavy blow for Latinos, as about half of all Latino borrowers would have had their entire debt forgiven, according to Excelencia in Education, a Latino student advocacy organization.

The Biden administration has been since announcing small measures that circumvent Congressional or court approval such as today's.

However, the president also announced this week a new plan to provide student debt cancellation for over 30 million people. The measure would cancel up to $20,000 of accrued interest regardless of income.

Single people making less than $120,000 and couples making less than $240,000 enrolled in an income-driven repayment plan would have their interest forgiven.

This relief is aimed at addressing the nation's $1.77 trillion in student debt.