More than 2 million New Yorkers will receive student-loan relief under President Biden’s new program — although the government still has to hire thousands of workers to help run it, Sen. Chuck Schumer says.
“They need to hire new people, train those people and not have people wait three hours for a phone call,” the New York Democrat said Sunday.
“The federal government already has the dollars. We’ve spoken to the Department of Education. They are willing to give the loan processors more money to hire more people,” Schumer said.
Biden announced Thursday that his administration would forgive $10,000 for borrowers individually earning less than $125,000 a year or $250,000 as a family. Cem Ozdel/Anadolu Agency/Getty ImagesStudent-loan process providers should be able to staff up in the coming weeks to prepare for the peak of calls that could come in during the fall, the pol said.
Biden announced Thursday that his administration would forgive $10,000 for borrowers individually earning less than $125,000 a year or $250,000 as a family. People who received federal Pell Grants and make less than $125,000 will be eligible for up to $20,000 in loan forgiveness.
About $16.3 billion worth of debt will be canceled in New York alone, according to Schumer’s office. Currently, New Yorkers have a combined $93.9 billion in federal debt, the office said.
A little more than a million borrowers in New York will have all their debt wiped clean, part of the 2.25 million who will see at least some relief, Schumer’s office said.
The Democrat has argued for up to $50,000 a pop in debt relief for people.
“But this is a huge first step, and it makes it easier now to increase the amount of debt relief that students will get,” Schumer said of the Biden program.
But critics of the program, including some Democrats, have called it “monumentally unfair” to those who have already paid off their debt, chose less costly colleges to avoid racking up huge bills or opted never to go on to higher education.
