ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Tens of thousands of Floridians will receive part of more than $3 billion in federal student loan debt relief, according to the Biden administration.
This is part of nearly $39 billion in debt forgiveness being distributed to eligible people across the U.S.
But wait, didn't the Supreme Court strike down the administration's federal student debt relief? Yes, but this is different, government leaders say.
First, this debt forgiveness applies to a lot fewer people. Only about 804,000 people who have Income-Driven Repayment Plans (IDR) will receive this type of forgiveness, according to a release from the U.S. Department of Education (DOE).
Second, the Biden administration says this new debt forgiveness is being offered to correct errors from previous administrations regarding IDR payments.
Here in Florida, a total of 56,930 people are eligible for about $3.04 billion in debt forgiveness under the change to this program.
The types of borrowers eligible for this plan include those with Direct Loans and those with Federal Family Education Loans held by the DOE (including Parent PLUS loans of either type). To find out if you're eligible, click here.
Under the Higher Education Act and DOE regulations, a borrower is normally eligible for forgiveness in income-driven plans after making 240 or 300 monthly payments — the equivalent of 20 or 25 years on a standard repayment plan.
While the number of required payments varies based on when the loans were first taken out and what type they are, Biden administration officials contend that inaccurate payment counts have caused borrowers to lose progress toward their loan forgiveness threshold.
Last April, the Biden administration announced it was making a one-time adjustment to ensure borrowers' monthly payments were being counted accurately.
What the Biden administration is doing now is counting months where payments were partial or late, when loans were paused by forbearance for an extended time, or when the loans were deferred any time after 2013.
Previously, those time periods and payments (or deferred payments) wouldn't count towards the 240 or 300-month threshold for loans to be forgiven.
If you're eligible for federal student loan debt forgiveness, the DOE will notify you. Those notifications started going out on July 14.
According to the Department of Education, it will continue to notify borrowers who reach the forgiveness thresholds "every two months until next year when all borrowers who are not yet eligible for forgiveness will have their payment counts updated."
TEGNA's Andrew Weil and Chris McCrory contributed to this report.