--- title: Early Student Loan Forgiveness Applies to More Borrowers Than Originally Expected description: Borrowers who took out more than $12,000 also will be eligible for fast-tracked forgiveness through Biden's new SAVE plan, ED confirms. 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: '2024-01-16T20:32:39.000Z' modified: '2024-01-16T20:32:39.000Z' section: Personal Finance tags: - News word_count: 601 canonical: https://money.com/student-loan-forgiveness-save-higher-balances/ 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/). ![Two students, wearing a cap and gown, taking a selfie in-front of a college building](https://img.money.com/2024/01/News-Student-Debt-Save-Plan-Forgiveness.jpg) Early student loan forgiveness through the Biden administration’s new income-driven repayment plan is on its way for borrowers with higher original [student loan](https://money.com/student-loans/) balances, too. President Joe Biden announced Friday that his administration is implementing the forgiveness portion of Saving on a Valuable Education program, aka SAVE, nearly six months ahead of schedule. Debt [cancellation now will start in February.](https://money.com/early-student-loan-forgiveness-save-plan/) This benefit was originally scheduled to take effect in July. Due to mixed messaging of the roll out and complex qualifications, [it](https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/12/heres-who-qualifies-for-bidens-early-student-loan-forgiveness-.html) [was](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/biden-announces-early-student-debt-cancellation-borrowers-rcna133574) [widely](https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2024/01/12/biden-cancels-more-student-loans-months-ahead-of-schedule/?sh=3db3f6a83e62) [reported](https://www.npr.org/2024/01/12/1224265472/student-loan-forgiveness-save-plan) that only loan amounts of $12,000 or less would be eligible for early forgiveness, but the White House and the Department of Education confirmed to Money that higher balances are eligible for forgiveness as well. ## Take control of your student loans today! ### Refinancing your Student Loans could save you money on interest, help pay off your loan faster and even free up extra cash in your budget. Why wait? Click on your state to get started today! [See Details](https://money.com/pr/z75814e16c7f?ap_referrer=%2Fstudent-loan-forgiveness-save-higher-balances%2F) “Borrowers with higher debt loads will also see their debts canceled starting in February if they have already met the criteria and are enrolled in SAVE,” the Education Department clarified in a statement to Money. The department’s [official rules](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/01/16/2024-00204/improving-income-driven-repayment-for-the-william-d-ford-federal-direct-loan-program-and-the-federal), published to the Federal Register Tuesday, also confirm that borrowers with more than just $12,000 of debt could receive forgiveness as soon as February if they have made enough qualifying monthly payments on their loans. ## Who qualifies for early SAVE forgiveness The core requirements for student loan forgiveness through SAVE are related to how much you **originally borrowed** for higher education and **how long** you’ve been in repayment. In other words, there is no limit on the amount of debt that can be canceled so long as you meet the required years of repayment. Here are the key qualifications: 1. To receive forgiveness after as few as 10 years of repayment, you must have originally borrowed $12,000 or less. 2. For each $1,000 above that amount, your repayment period increases by one year: $13,000 would take 11 years; $14,000 would take 12 years and so on. 3. You must be enrolled in the SAVE repayment plan. If you meet these criteria, the Education Department says your debt will be forgiven as early as February with no action needed. The department will also be contacting borrowers who may be eligible for forgiveness but haven’t enrolled in SAVE yet. The White House says to be on the lookout for an email titled: “You may qualify for loan forgiveness on SAVE." So far, about 7 million people have enrolled in SAVE, according to the newest figures from the Education Department. Of those, nearly 4 million borrowers have had their [monthly student loan payments set to $0](https://money.com/student-loan-payments-cut-save-plan/). As an income-driven repayment plan, SAVE sets monthly loan payments according to 10% your disposable income — as defined by a formula based on 250% of the federal poverty level. If you have no disposable income, your payment is zeroed out. In the meantime, each “payment” of zero counts toward your repayment history. Depending on how much you originally borrowed, you can receive forgiveness after 10 to 25 years of payments. Undergraduate loans have a maximum repayment timeline of 20 years, while the maximum for graduate loans is 25 years. In effect, borrowers who originally took out less than $21,000 will see forgiveness faster than the 20-year timeline offered on previous income-driven repayment plans. In July, more SAVE benefits are slated to roll out. Most notably, the formula that determines your monthly payment amount is getting more generous. When it takes effect, monthly payments in the SAVE program will be set to 5% of your disposable income, down from the current 10%. ![](https://s3.consumersadvocate.org/prd/image/image/26621/medium_18b55bcd-82cd-4d73-b404-97711fd4a5e7.png) Refinance your Student Loan with SoFi today! [See Details](https://money.com/pr/odc45b263191?ap_referrer=%2Fstudent-loan-forgiveness-save-higher-balances%2F) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/student-loan-forgiveness-save-higher-balances/#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": "Early Student Loan Forgiveness Applies to More Borrowers Than Originally Expected" } ] }, { "@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-save-higher-balances/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/student-loan-forgiveness-save-higher-balances/", "name": "Early Student Loan Forgiveness Applies to More Borrowers Than Originally Expected", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2024-01-16T20:32:39.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/student-loan-forgiveness-save-higher-balances/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/student-loan-forgiveness-save-higher-balances/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-01-16T20:32:39.000Z" }, { "@type": "NewsArticle", "headline": "Early Student Loan Forgiveness Applies to More Borrowers Than Originally Expected", "articleSection": "Personal Finance", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2024/01/News-Student-Debt-Save-Plan-Forgiveness.jpg", "width": 2834, "height": 1889, "caption": "News-Student-Debt-Save-Plan-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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