Although people who qualify for forgiveness can still apply, the Department of Education can’t cancel any debt while an appeals court considers a legal challenge. In August, President Joe Biden announced his administration’s plan for widespread student loan forgiveness. The Department of Education planned to forgive $10,000 in student debt for anyone making under $125,000 a year, and $20,000 in student debt for people under that annual income limit who received Pell Grants.
The application for the debt forgiveness plan opened in October. Although the administration didn’t give a targeted timeline of when it would forgive loans, it said the pause on loan repayments would end in January 2023. Many borrowers are wondering where things stand with their loans in the meantime.
VERIFY reader Joseph texted the team to ask if a court order has paused debt forgiveness.
As of Nov. 3, 2022, both the Department of Education’s student debt relief information page and the application for student debt relief have notices explaining that discharge of student loan debt through the widespread forgiveness plan is paused because of a court order.
