Federal Student Loan Forgiveness in 2024: 7 Things to Expect

By Kassondra Cloos | Published on February 23, 2026

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Federal Student loan forgiveness programs have changed quite a lot over the last year, and more options for student debt relief are coming. Here’s what you need to know about the Biden Administration’s recent plans to help student loan borrowers get closer to debt freedom.

The new Plan B forgiveness program may be on the horizon

President Biden’s original debt cancellation plan would have automatically forgiven up to $20,000 in federal student loan debt for millions of Americans. But since the Supreme Court struck down the plan earlier this year, the Biden-Harris Administration has said it would find another way to provide student debt relief.

Biden’s Plan B forgiveness plan is now taking shape. While it will likely involve a narrower group of recent grads — perhaps just 10% of total borrowers — it could provide much-needed relief to people in the following situations:

• Those eligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF), but who haven’t applied for it.
• People who owe more than they initially borrowed due to interest.
• Borrowers who have been paying their loans for 25 years or more.
• People whose universities provided education of “questionable value,” such as if students were the victims of a higher education scam.
• People experiencing financial hardship.

Niche student loan forgiveness initiatives will grow

Previously, the main way to achieve student loan forgiveness was through the PSLF program, which requires borrowers to work for qualifying employers in the nonprofit and public service sectors — for example, as a secondary school teacher in a certain district.

Biden is now working to expand individual student loan forgiveness options, which includes:

• Discharging loans for people with total and permanent disability. Under the Biden Administration, the Education Department streamlined access to the Total and Permanent Disability discharge program. About $10 billion in student loans have been canceled under this program so far.

• Loan discharge for school-related initiatives. There are two programs that entitle borrowers to federal loan cancellation if their school has engaged in misconduct. Both of these programs are currently under review.

• The Borrower Defense Loan Discharge is currently under review, but aims to help borrowers whose schools abused student loans or were misleading or caused harm in providing educational services.

• The Closed School Discharge Program aims to forgive loans for students whose institutions closed during their studies or shortly after graduation.

• Waiver initiatives for PSLF and Income-Driven Repayment Plans. In order to receive forgiveness under PSLF and IDR plans, borrowers have to meet strict payment requirements. In the past, this has made it challenging for people to qualify for forgiveness, so the Biden Administration offered a limited PSLF waiver in 2022 to adjust borrowers’ payment counts, to give them more credit and make them eligible for forgiveness sooner.

The PSLF waiver has ended, but IDR adjustments are underway and expected to be completed by July 1, 2024.

Borrowers will see student loan retirement benefits

If you have a retirement plan through your job, your employer may match your contributions to your retirement fund. But if you’re on a low income and struggling to pay your student loans, you may have to choose between paying down your remaining balance and saving for retirement.

The new Secure Act 2.0 allows employers to match their employees’ student loan payments with contributions to their retirement fund, so that you can still benefit from an employer match even if you’re not able to directly contribute to your retirement plan while making monthly payments on student loans.

3.5 million borrowers will get student loan forgiveness credit

The PSLF program has long been notoriously complicated. One of the main criteria for earning forgiveness is that borrowers have to make a certain number of qualifying payments on their repayment plan, and it can be tricky to understand what counts and what doesn’t.

After the student loan payment pause was lifted, some servicers sent borrowers inaccurate statements or late bills that affected borrowers’ ability to make qualifying payments. As a result, Biden recently ordered those servicers to put about 3.5 million borrowers into administrative forbearance while they sort out their problems.

Biden has assured that borrowers will receive credit toward forgiveness during this period, as long as they were enrolled in a repayment program, and that the months they’re on forbearance will qualify toward their payment count.

If you think your payment count has been thrown off and you should get an account adjustment, you can contact your student loan servicer to find out more.

New SAVE plan forgiveness benefits will activate

The Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE, Plan, is an income-driven repayment plan from the U.S. Department of Education that significantly reduces the amount of discretionary income borrowers are expected to divert toward their loan payments.

This IDR plan is a major component of Biden’s debt relief plan, and also offers some borrowers a faster track to forgiveness.

Starting in February, borrowers enrolled in the SAVE Plan who initially borrowed $12,000 or less and have been making payments for 10 years or more, will see the remaining balance of their loans forgiven.

Starting in July, additional benefits of the SAVE plan will kick in:

• Borrowers will see a maximum repayment term proportionate to the amount they borrowed. People who borrowed between $12,001 and $13,000 will have a maximum repayment term of 11 years; people who borrowed between $15,001 and $16,000 will have a maximum term of 14 years, and so on, up to a term cap of 20-25 years (depending on the type of loans you borrowed).
• Getting a Federal Direct Consolidation Loan to simplify your bills won’t impact your eligibility for forgiveness programs. Instead, your payment count will be a weighted average of the number of payments you’ve made on each account. This is particularly noteworthy for students whose families borrowed Federal Family Education Loans (FFEL) or Federal Perkins Loans, which can become eligible for PSLF forgiveness if consolidated with Federal Direct Loans.
• If you’re 75 days late on a payment and the Department of Education has your tax data, you’ll automatically be enrolled on whatever IDR or income-contingent repayment plan (ICR) gives you the lowest monthly payment.

The student loan on-ramp will continue through fall

To help borrowers ease back into making their payments¹, the Biden-Harris debt relief plan has given everyone a sort of indirect grace period through the student loan “on-ramp.”

Through the end of this September, borrowers who miss payments won’t be reported to credit agencies, which means they’ll be shielded from most of the nasty consequences of falling behind with a lender.

It’s important to note that interest will still accrue whether you make your payments or not, so you could end up with an expensive surprise if you ignore your payments during this period.

If you’re unable to make payments, contact your student loan servicer to see if you qualify for the SAVE plan or other IDR plans, which could reduce your monthly payments to $0 while you get back on your feet.

The fresh start program will help borrowers through September

The Fresh Start program gives borrowers who have defaulted on federal student loans, a one-time opportunity to regain access to federal student aid benefits and qualify for higher education loans.

Specifically, it allows people to move their defaulted loans from the Default Resolution Group (or other applicable program) back to a federal student loan servicer, where they will be eligible for IDR plans and forgiveness programs.

Everyone has access to these benefits through September, but you have to sign up for the program specifically to use the benefits long-term.

Learn more about Earnest student loan refinancing

Earnest offers some of the lowest rates around for student loan refinancing, which can save you thousands of dollars in interest² over the course of your student loan repayment term.

Want to see how much you could save? Try our student loan refinance calculator to see what terms and interest rates you could be eligible for. It’s fast, free, and it won’t affect your credit score.

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About the Author

Kassondra Cloos

Kassondra Cloos is a writer, editor, and former Earnest client. She refinanced her own student loans with Earnest after graduating and has first-hand experience with the refinancing process. She has been writing about personal finance and student loans since 2017. She also writes about sustainable travel and adventure for The Guardian, Outside, Backpacker, and many other publications. You can find more of her work via her travel newsletter, Out of Office.

Disclaimer

This blog post provides personal finance educational information, and it is not intended to provide legal, financial, or tax advice.

1 As was announced by the U.S. Department of Education (ED), federal student loans have resumed accruing interest starting September 1, 2023, and federal student loan payments were reinstated starting in October. Please note that you may lose benefits associated with your underlying federal loans, such as federal Income-driven Repayment Plans (an example of which is the SAVE plan), Economic Hardship Deferment, Public Service Loan Forgiveness, or other deferment and forbearance options, if you refinance into a private loan. If you file for bankruptcy, you may still be required to pay back this loan. See https://studentaid.gov for more information.

2 Choosing to refinance to a longer term may lower your monthly payment, but increase the amount of interest you may pay. Choosing to refinance to a shorter term may increase your monthly payment, but lower the amount of interest you may pay. Review your loan documentation for the total cost of your refinanced loan.