Yes and no. President Biden’s plan to cancel up to $10,000 or $20,000 per borrower was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2023, so the broad, one-time student loan forgiveness under Biden never happened. What did happen was narrower: a large one-time correction to payment counts that discharged loans for some borrowers who had already earned forgiveness under existing programs, expanded use of Public Service Loan Forgiveness, and a new income-driven plan called SAVE that a federal court later vacated. The federal student loan portfolio still sits at roughly $1.7 trillion across 42.8 million borrowers heading into 2026.1Federal Student Aid. Federal Student Aid Posts Updated Reports to FSA Data Center
The Plan the Supreme Court Blocked
In June 2023, the Supreme Court ruled in Biden v. Nebraska that the Secretary of Education did not have authority under the HEROES Act of 2003 to cancel roughly $430 billion in student loan principal.2Supreme Court of the United States. Biden v. Nebraska The blocked plan would have discharged up to $10,000 for borrowers earning under $125,000, and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients. The Court read the statute’s authority to “waive or modify” existing provisions as too narrow to support cancellation on that scale. No borrower received relief under that plan.
After the ruling, the administration worked through programs Congress had already authorized. That is where the actual discharges came from.
The Payment Count Adjustment That Did Discharge Loans
The Department of Education completed a one-time adjustment of income-driven repayment payment counts in the fall of 2024, with updated counts appearing in borrower accounts starting in January 2025.3Federal Student Aid. Payment Count Adjustments Toward Income-Driven Repayment and Public Service Loan Forgiveness Programs It applied automatically to all Direct Loans and federally owned FFEL loans.
The correction fixed years of servicing errors in which months spent in certain deferments, forbearances, or the wrong repayment plan had not been counted toward forgiveness. Some borrowers received immediate discharge because the corrected total pushed them past the 20- or 25-year IDR threshold or the 120-payment PSLF threshold. If you are affected, the updated count should already show on your StudentAid.gov dashboard. Joint consolidation loan borrowers had a separate deadline of June 30, 2025, to submit a separation application to receive the adjustment.
Public Service Loan Forgiveness
PSLF is the most valuable discharge program still running, and it does not depend on any single administration. It is written into the statute.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 20 USC 1087e – Terms and Conditions of Loans After 120 qualifying monthly payments, roughly ten years, your remaining Direct Loan balance is canceled.
To qualify, you need to work full-time for a qualifying employer while you make those payments. Full-time means averaging at least 30 hours per week, or meeting your employer’s own full-time standard if it requires more. Qualifying employers include federal, state, local, or tribal government agencies, 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organizations, and certain other nonprofits that provide public services such as emergency management or public health.5eCFR. 34 CFR 685.219 – Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program Two qualifying part-time jobs can be combined to meet the 30-hour threshold.
Payments have to be made under a qualifying repayment plan: any income-driven plan, the standard 10-year plan, or any plan whose monthly payment is at least what the 10-year standard plan would require.5eCFR. 34 CFR 685.219 – Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program Only Direct Loans count. FFEL and Perkins loans need to be consolidated into a Direct Consolidation Loan first, which resets your payment count.
Submit a PSLF form every year to verify your employer and track your progress.6Federal Student Aid. How to Manage Your Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Progress on StudentAid.gov Waiting until you hit 120 payments to send everything at once is risky, because a problem with your employer’s eligibility or your loan type may not surface until years of payments have gone uncounted.
Income-Driven Repayment Forgiveness
If you are not on the PSLF track, you can still reach forgiveness through an income-driven repayment plan. The timeline depends on the plan and when you first borrowed:
- Income-Based Repayment for new borrowers on or after July 1, 2014: forgiveness after 20 years.
- Income-Based Repayment for borrowers before July 1, 2014: forgiveness after 25 years.
- Pay As You Earn (PAYE): forgiveness after 20 years.
- Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR): forgiveness after 25 years.
Your monthly payment is calculated from your income and family size. Depending on what you earn, the payment can be as low as $0 per month and still count toward the forgiveness timeline.7Federal Student Aid. Income-Driven Repayment Plans
A new option, the Repayment Assistance Plan, takes effect on July 1, 2026. It sets a minimum payment of at least $10 per month, cancels unpaid interest each month, and forgives remaining balances after 30 years of on-time payments. Payments under RAP also count toward PSLF.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 20 USC 1087e – Terms and Conditions of Loans
What Happened to SAVE
The Saving on a Valuable Education plan, created by the Biden administration as a more generous income-driven option, was struck down by a federal court order on March 10, 2026.8Federal Student Aid. IDR Plan Court Actions: Impact on Borrowers The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the plan in its entirety, concluding that the Department of Education had exceeded its authority.
Borrowers who were enrolled in SAVE need to switch to another plan. Servicers have been directed to reach out about the transition; the alternatives are IBR, PAYE, or ICR, depending on your loan type and when you first borrowed. If you do not actively pick a new plan, you risk being placed on the standard repayment plan, which carries higher payments and does not lead to forgiveness. The features that made SAVE attractive, particularly its 225%-of-poverty-line income protection and automatic interest waiver, are gone. RAP’s interest cancellation feature restores part of that idea starting July 1, 2026, but its other terms are different.
Other Discharge Programs Still Available
Three narrower programs discharge loans in specific situations, and none of them were created by the Biden administration; they long predate it.
Borrower Defense to Repayment. If your school misled you about programs, job placement, or credit transferability, you may qualify for full discharge, and possibly a refund of amounts paid. The legal standard depends on when your loan was disbursed.9eCFR. 34 CFR 685.206 – Borrower Responsibilities and Defenses For loans disbursed between July 2017 and July 2023, you have to show a material misrepresentation by the school, reasonable reliance, and financial harm. Claims are filed at StudentAid.gov and can be reviewed individually or as part of a group finding.10Federal Student Aid. Final Regulations: Borrower Defense to Repayment, Pre-dispute Arbitration, Interest Capitalization, Total and Permanent Disability Discharges, Closed School Discharges, Public Service Loan Forgiveness, and False Certification Discharges
Total and Permanent Disability discharge. Available if you cannot engage in substantial work due to a condition expected to result in death, that has lasted at least 60 continuous months, or that is expected to last at least 60 continuous months. You can qualify through documentation from the Social Security Administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs, or a licensed physician.11Federal Student Aid. Total and Permanent Disability Discharge
Closed School discharge. Available if your school shut down while you were enrolled, while you were on an approved leave of absence, or within 180 days after you withdrew.12Federal Student Aid. Closed School Discharge In many cases the Department identifies eligible borrowers and processes the discharge automatically one year after the closure, without an application.13eCFR. 34 CFR 685.214 – Closed School Discharge
Taxes on Forgiven Loans in 2026
This is the biggest rule change from the Biden years, and it can cost borrowers real money. The American Rescue Plan Act temporarily excluded forgiven student loan debt from federal taxable income for discharges between December 31, 2020, and January 1, 2026. Congress did not extend it.
PSLF forgiveness stays tax-free at the federal level. The statute permanently excludes from gross income any student loan amount discharged because the borrower worked a certain period in certain professions for a broad class of employers, and that language covers PSLF.14Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 108 – Income From Discharge of Indebtedness
IDR forgiveness after 20 or 25 years is different. A remaining balance discharged under an income-driven plan after January 1, 2026, is generally treated as taxable income at the federal level. For someone with $80,000 forgiven, that could mean a five-figure tax bill in the year of discharge. A handful of states, including California, Indiana, North Carolina, and Mississippi, may also tax forgiven student loan debt at the state level. If you are approaching IDR forgiveness, plan for the tax hit by setting money aside or talking to a tax professional before the discharge year.
Parent PLUS and Consolidation Deadlines
FFEL and Perkins loans are not directly eligible for PSLF or most IDR plans. You have to consolidate them into a Direct Consolidation Loan first. Consolidation resets your qualifying payment count: a new consolidation loan gets a weighted average of the payment histories of the loans being combined, proportional to each loan’s balance. A small loan with many qualifying payments blended with a large loan with few payments produces a lower combined count than you might expect.
Parent PLUS borrowers have a hard deadline. To keep access to income-driven repayment and PSLF, existing Parent PLUS borrowers must consolidate into a Direct Consolidation Loan and make their first payment by July 1, 2026. The Department of Education has recommended submitting consolidation applications by April 1, 2026, to leave enough processing time. Miss that window and Parent PLUS loans will be limited to repayment plans that do not qualify for PSLF.
How to Apply
Nearly every forgiveness application goes through StudentAid.gov. You need a verified Federal Student Aid ID, which uses your Social Security number and a working email or phone number and doubles as your digital signature.
For PSLF, submit the form through the online help tool. It asks for your employer’s Employer Identification Number, which appears in Box b of your W-2.15Federal Student Aid. Become a Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Help Tool Ninja An authorized official at your employer, usually someone in HR, verifies your employment dates and signs. If digital signing is not possible, the portal generates a printable version to mail in.
For IDR enrollment or recertification, you need your most recent federal tax return or a signed Form 1040. The Department can often pull that data directly from the IRS with your consent. Check your loan types on your StudentAid.gov dashboard before you start, because whether you hold Direct, FFEL, or Perkins loans decides which programs you can use and whether consolidation is needed. Processing times run from weeks to months, and you can follow the status through the same portal.