Nearly 5.5 million federal student loan borrowers have enrolled for President Biden's new repayment option.
Nearly 5.5 million federal student loan borrowers have enrolled in what the Biden administration calls "The most generous" repayment option ever offered, federal officials said on Wednesday.
The repayment plan, dubbed the Saving on Valuable Education plan, went into effect in August as part of President Joe Biden's regulatory effort to dramatically reduce monthly obligations for student borrowers who aren't earning very much, with many borrowers seeing their bills shrink to practically nothing.
The updated SAVE enrollment figure includes 1.8 million borrowers who have newly signed up for the program, as well as another 364,000 borrowers who were automatically switched to SAVE because they had already been in one of the existing income-driven repayment plans that the Biden administration seeks to replace with SAVE. The new figure is based upon enrollment in the program as of Oct. 15.
It reflects an increase from the the 4 million borrowers that the Education Department said were enrolled in the plan at the beginning of September.
Overall, borrowers are repaying $300 billion in federal student loans on the plan.
"I'm thrilled to see that in less than three months, nearly 5.5 million Americans in every community across the country are taking advantage of the SAVE Plan's many benefits, from lower monthly payments to protection from runaway student loan interest," U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a statement on Monday, promising to "Not rest" in the efforts to "Make paying for college more affordable." Biden Plan Faces Republican Challenge The SAVE plan is expected to cost billions in taxpayer dollars, a point Republican lawmakers have been emphasizing since the plan's announcement.
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