The US Department of Education wants to automatically cancel student loans for all disabled people for $ 5.8 billion. Those affected had the right to do so before – only very few knew it.
The US Department of Education plans to automatically waive tuition fees for 323,000 people with severe disabilities. This emerges from a press release published by the ministry on Thursday. Several US media had reported about it. The government around President Joe Biden plans to spend a total of 5.8 billion dollars on this.
Many of those affected knew nothing of their entitlement
According to a Washington Post report, any American who is deemed completely incapacitated by a doctor, social security agency, or Department of Veterans Affairs has the right to federal tuition waiver. The problem: Many of those affected would not have known anything about this possibility.
And even if they insisted on this right, complicated, tedious bureaucracy would put them off. Over a period of three years, the borrowers would have had to prove annually that their income did not exceed the poverty line. In 2021 this was the equivalent of around 11,000 euros. This meant that those affected had to take out loans again on a regular basis.
Automated relief should start in September
In order to avoid additional burdens during the corona pandemic, the Biden government waived the laborious procedure with retroactive effect until March 2020. Education Minister Miguel Cardona announced on Thursday that the waiver of proof of income would be extended indefinitely. A complete abolition of the complicated negotiation procedure should take place by the end of October.
“The Ministry of Education is developing its practices to ensure that borrowers come first and that we give them relief without having to jump through hoops,” Cardona said in a phone call to reporters on Thursday.
According to the US magazine “Forbes”, the announcement was very well received. “This is a life-changing announcement for hundreds of thousands of borrowers with disabilities,” said Dan Zibel, vice president of student defense. According to the ministry, the automated discharge process should start in September.
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