--- title: What the Student Loan Forgiveness Approval Emails Mean for Borrowers description: The Biden Administration began sending approval notices to borrowers who applied for student loan forgiveness, but program remains on hold. authors: - name: Adam Hardy role: Lead Data Reporter url: https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/ bio: Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. Adam’s work has also appeared in Business Insider, Forbes, Nasdaq, The Penny Hoarder, Yahoo! Finance and more than a dozen local and regional newspapers. education: University of South Florida, BA, Magazine Journalism at_money_since: 2021 articles: 498 covers: - Personal Finance - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology also_seen_in: - The Penny Hoarder - Forbes Advisor - Creative Loafing - The New York Times - The Washington Post - Bloomberg - Harvard Law School - The Federal Register - National Consumer Law Center - CBS News - Becker's Hospital Review - Business Insider - Mother Jones - The Week - Fortune - The Philadelphia Inquirer - National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NAFSAA) - Education Advisory Board (EAB) - The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) - This Morning with Gordon Deal - Empower - Reddit social: - https://www.x.com/hardyjournalism - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hardyjournalism/ editors: - name: Kaitlin Mulhere role: Editor url: https://money.com/author/kaitlin-mulhere/ bio: Kaitlin Mulhere has been covering the intersection of college and personal finance since 2015. She enjoys breaking down the complexities of college costs and financial aid, and she also runs Money’s Best Colleges. education: University of Florida at_money_since: 2015 articles: 217 covers: - Personal Finance - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes social: - https://twitter.com/KMulhere - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaitlin-mulhere-64503048/ published: '2022-11-21T18:10:18.000Z' modified: '2024-01-10T13:36:00.000Z' section: Personal Finance tags: - News - student debt - Student Loans word_count: 514 canonical: https://money.com/student-loan-forgiveness-approval-emails/ type: NewsArticle source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Locust Walk with students in fall](https://img.money.com/2022/11/News-Student-Loan-Forgiveness-Approval-Emails.jpg) Millions of federal student loan borrowers are getting word that their applications for debt forgiveness have been approved. The Education Department sent out a first wave of emails to some borrowers on Saturday, informing them that their [student loan forgiveness application](https://money.com/biden-student-loan-forgiveness-how-to-apply/) for up to $20,000 of debt cancellation has been approved while also providing an update about where the program stands amid a flurry of legal setbacks. "We reviewed your application and determined that you are eligible for loan relief under the Plan. We have sent this approval on to your loan servicer. You do not need to take any further action,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona wrote in the email. Cardona added that the department “will discharge your approved debt if and when we prevail in court.” ## What does the approval email actually mean? The emails to borrowers began going out one day after the Biden Administration petitioned the Supreme Court to revive its broad student loan forgiveness plan. The program has been on hold after being blocked by federal courts in two separate lawsuits. The court orders bar the Education Department from discharging anyone’s debt for the time being. The Supreme Court has not yet decided whether to hear the Biden Administration's appeal. In the mass email to borrowers, Cardona stated that the department believes the lawsuits are “meritless” and vowed to fight for borrowers. Before the program was blocked by courts, shutting the application portal down, the Education Department said around 26 million borrowers applied and 16 million had been approved. The emails are going out to those 16 million approved applicants in waves. “Don’t worry if you don’t get an email today — more are coming,” Cardona [tweeted](https://twitter.com/seccardona/status/1593980726172561408?s=46&t=ct8reewQt4G6vEj1nsgsHw) Saturday. The emails are mainly an effort by the administration to keep applicants updated amid a dizzying array of legal developments. They don't change anything for borrowers at the moment, since the debt can’t be canceled unless the Biden Administration wins in court. So for now, tens of millions of [borrowers remain in limbo](https://money.com/student-loan-forgiveness-payment-pause-timeline/) after the [planned forgiveness timeline](https://money.com/student-loan-forgiveness-timeline-dates/) fell apart. Under the original timeline, as many as 20 million student loan borrowers were expecting to have their [loan balances completely wiped out](https://money.com/who-benefits-from-student-loan-forgiveness/) through President Joe Biden’s forgiveness plan before the end of the year. But instead, they now face the return of monthly payments as the [pause on federal student loan payments](https://money.com/student-loan-payment-pause-extended/) — which has been ongoing for nearly three years — is slated to expire on Jan. 1, 2023. The impending expiration and the uncertainty around Biden's forgiveness plan have led advocates to press the president to extend the payment pause for an eighth time. “Throwing millions of borrowers back into repayment as the state of debt relief remains uncertain is a recipe for disaster and will result in widespread confusion and set borrowers up for failure,” a coalition of more than 200 advocacy groups [wrote in a letter to Biden](https://protectborrowers.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/2022.11.21-Payment-Pause-Extension-Letter.pdf) on Monday. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/student-loan-forgiveness-approval-emails/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Personal Finance", "item": "https://money.com/personal-finance/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Student Loan Debt", "item": "https://money.com/student-loan-debt/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "What the Student Loan Forgiveness Approval Emails Mean for Borrowers" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/student-loan-forgiveness-approval-emails/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/student-loan-forgiveness-approval-emails/", "name": "What the Student Loan Forgiveness Approval Emails Mean for Borrowers", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2022-11-21T18:10:18.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/student-loan-forgiveness-approval-emails/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/student-loan-forgiveness-approval-emails/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-01-10T13:36:00.000Z" }, { "@type": "NewsArticle", "headline": "What the Student Loan Forgiveness Approval Emails Mean for Borrowers", "articleSection": "Personal Finance", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2022/11/News-Student-Loan-Forgiveness-Approval-Emails.jpg", "width": 2880, "height": 1920, "caption": "News-Student-Loan-Forgiveness-Approval-Emails" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Adam Hardy", "url": "https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/#author", "description": "Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. 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