--- title: Biden's Student Loan Forgiveness Plan Is in Limbo as Payments Are Set to Resume description: The original student loan forgiveness timeline is out the window due to lawsuits, and some think that loan payments won't resume in 2023. 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: 501 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: Brad Tuttle role: Senior Editor url: https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/ bio: Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals. education: Columbia University School of Journalism, MS at_money_since: 2014 articles: 366 covers: - Personal Finance - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle - https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225 former_staff: true published: '2022-11-16T18:35:38.000Z' modified: '2024-01-10T17:44:20.000Z' section: Personal Finance tags: - News - student loan forgiveness word_count: 814 canonical: https://money.com/student-loan-forgiveness-payment-pause-timeline/ 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/). ![Photo collage of a college graduate in cap and gown holding a diploma with a sticker on his face that says "Keep Calm"](https://img.money.com/2022/11/News-Legal-Hurdles-Student-Loan-Forgiveness.jpg?crop=0px%2C31px%2C1440px%2C810px&quality=85) The original timeline of President Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness plan is out the window following two major legal setbacks. Tens of millions of federal student loan borrowers were encouraged to [submit their applications](https://money.com/student-loan-forgiveness-application-beta-launch/) for up to $20,000 of [loan forgiveness](https://money.com/biden-student-loan-forgiveness-faq/) by Nov. 15, in order to have their debts forgiven by 2023. That deadline passed before millions had the chance to apply. Some 26 million borrowers applied for forgiveness by last week, according to Biden administration officials. However, the application portal closed Friday after a federal judge in Texas issued an injunction, which [halts the forgiveness program](https://money.com/student-loan-forgiveness-applications-paused/) as the court case plays out. The Biden administration quickly appealed the decision. But on Monday, a separate federal appeals court dealt another blow by issuing a similar injunction. “The injunction will remain in effect until further order of this court or the Supreme Court of the United States,” the federal appeals judges said in their [ruling](https://ecf.ca8.uscourts.gov/opndir/22/11/223179P.pdf). These legal developments leave Biden's marquee student debt relief initiative in limbo. One-time forgiveness of up to $20,000 per borrower was a key part of the president's plans to make sweeping changes to federal student loan programs before [loan payments are set to resume](https://money.com/student-loan-payment-pause-extended/) on Jan. 1, 2023. Monthly federal loan payments have been paused since March 2020. In the meantime, the Biden administration has canceled [more than $38 billion](https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/education-department-announces-permanent-improvements-public-service-loan-forgiveness-program-and-one-time-payment-count-adjustment-bring-borrowers-closer-forgiveness) of student loan debt through targeted relief programs. The broad, one-time forgiveness plan is seen as the cherry on top. If the administration's loan forgiveness program is successful, as many as 20 million borrowers could have [their entire balances wiped out](https://money.com/who-benefits-from-student-loan-forgiveness/). It's not yet clear if the broad loan forgiveness plan will survive the challenges in court. At the very least, the planned [student loan forgiveness timeline](https://money.com/student-loan-forgiveness-timeline-dates/) is upended, and the Biden administration is reportedly in the early stages of considering another extension to the loan payment pause to allow borrowers more time to react and prepare accordingly. ## What’s next for student loan forgiveness? For the borrowers who have already applied for broad student loan forgiveness, the Education Department has said it will keep their information on hand. But the department cannot forgive anyone’s debt through this program unless the Biden administration triumphs in court. In other words, it’s a waiting game. Borrowers should sit tight and [subscribe to student loan forgiveness alerts](https://www.ed.gov/subscriptions) directly from the Education Department to stay updated as the Biden administration defends its program in court. At some point, the matter is expected to reach the Supreme Court. “We are confident in our legal authority for the student debt relief program and believe it is necessary to help borrowers most in need as they recover from the pandemic,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement following Monday’s ruling. “The administration will continue to fight these baseless lawsuits by Republican officials and special interests and will never stop fighting to support working and middle class Americans.” ## Will there be another student loan payment pause? The one-two punch of legal setbacks are expected to delay or possibly even derail the forgiveness program as Jan. 1, 2023, bears down on millions of borrowers who will have to restart payments. If broad student loan forgiveness is not happening by then, approximately 20 million borrowers who were expecting their student debt balances to be completely wiped out will have to begin making loan payments again. Loan services may also be sent into a scramble, as they are faced with the unprecedented task of restarting payments for additional borrowers. In April the federal government estimated [as many as 15 million borrowers](https://www.consumerfinance.gov/data-research/research-reports/student-loan-borrowers-potentially-at-risk-payment-suspension-ends/) may have financial difficulty restarting payments. That number could be much higher if forgiveness does not come through in the near future. To avoid this scenario, the Biden administration is beginning to weigh yet another extension to the student loan payment pause, according to anonymous aides cited by the [*Washington Post*](https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2022/11/14/biden-student-loan-extend-moratorium/). “The extension we’re likely to see is meant to make sure borrowers don’t have the rug pulled out from under them, rather than an indefinite replacement for loan forgiveness,” one person told the *Post*. Not everyone is on board with this approach. “With inflation at a 40-year high and unemployment near historic lows, there is absolutely no justification for extending the student debt pause yet again,” Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said in a [statement](https://www.crfb.org/press-releases/student-debt-payments-should-restart-scheduled) Tuesday. “The pause was put in place as an emergency measure early in the pandemic. As the President has repeatedly pointed out, the pandemic recession is long over.” When asked to comment on the matter, the Department of Education deferred Money's questions to the White House, and the White House did not respond. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/student-loan-forgiveness-payment-pause-timeline/#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": "Biden's Student Loan Forgiveness Plan Is in Limbo as Payments Are Set to Resume" } ] }, { "@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-payment-pause-timeline/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/student-loan-forgiveness-payment-pause-timeline/", "name": "Biden's Student Loan Forgiveness Plan Is in Limbo as Payments Are Set to Resume", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2022-11-16T18:35:38.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/student-loan-forgiveness-payment-pause-timeline/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/student-loan-forgiveness-payment-pause-timeline/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-01-10T17:44:20.000Z" }, { "@type": "NewsArticle", "headline": "Biden's Student Loan Forgiveness Plan Is in Limbo as Payments Are Set to Resume", "articleSection": "Personal Finance", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2022/11/News-Legal-Hurdles-Student-Loan-Forgiveness.jpg?crop=0px%2C31px%2C1440px%2C810px&quality=85", "width": 1012, "height": 569, "caption": "News-Legal-Hurdles-Student-Loan-Forgiveness" } ], "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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