The loan relief fiasco

 Axios:

The implementation of President Biden's widespread, income-targeted student loan forgiveness is shaping up to be a bureaucratic challenge for the Department of Education.

Why it matters: Millions of Americans are in limbo waiting for information on how to take action on student debt relief — the success of which relies largely on an agency juggling unprecedented changes, on top of other reforms.

  • The agency doesn't have income data for most of the 43 million Americans eligible for forgiveness, meaning around 35 million people — including Pell Grant recipients — will have to attest that they makes less than $125,000 per year and apply for relief.

What we're watching: StudentAid.gov, the government’s financial aid website, experienced significant delays Wednesday and Thursday after it was inundated with people seeking information on loan forgiveness.

  • The White House doesn't know exactly how many eligible borrowers will actually end up applying for loan forgiveness — or how much it will cost.
  • The Education Department hasn't yet released the website where people can apply for loan forgiveness by attesting that they meet the income requirement — and it's still unclear when that will be released, a person familiar with the matter tells Axios.

More importantly: When will borrowers actually see the relief?

  • "That's the million-dollar question," Education Secretary Miguel Cardona told NPR Wednesday.
  • "It's really important that folks know that we're also improving a system that was broken and that was antiquated," he added.

How it'll work: The approximately 8 million qualifying borrowers for whom the agency already has income information will get automatic debt relief.

  • For everyone else: The White House is asking them to sign up for updates from the Education Department to receive further info on how to apply.

But, but, but: Experts caution that the agency may not be equipped to accomplish such a massive undertaking.

  • "It's an understaffed and overcommitted organization," Charlie Eaton, a UC Merced associate professor of sociology and student loan expert, tells Axios.

The rub: The Biden administration says the loan payment moratorium will end in January — and for that to happen "it's going to be really important borrowers have actually had a chance to declare their eligibility for loan forgiveness," Eaton says.

...

What is to keep a student from getting a loan and immediately applying for loan forgiveness?  This is already a bureaucratic nightmare.  It also demonstrates Biden's inability to plan for such a program.

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