Finally, on Tuesday, she received an email stating that she had received a 100 percent layoff.
“I cried,” said Ms. King, hoping she can now afford computer classes at her local community college.
The department appeared to have notified thousands of people of their credit relief on Tuesday, Mr Gokey said. But confusion remains: Several people have received notifications with inaccurate information. For example, a borrower who attended ITT received a letter stating that his loans for studying at the Marinello School of Beauty would be abolished.
The drive for widespread debt relief has overshadowed calls to fix this and other blatant administrative issues that need urgent attention, proponents say – ideally before January, when borrowers get bills again.
“The next few weeks and months are going to be incredibly momentous,” said Mr. Frotman.
He and others said the Biden government should prioritize the long-standing struggles with the public service loan allocation program, which aims to eliminate the debt of people who worked in government or community service jobs for a decade while making payments for make their loans. Millions of people might be eligible – the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau estimates one in four American workers has a skilled job – but a variety of issues have resulted in 98 percent rejections of the program.
And a new debacle looms: FedLoan, the service provider responsible for managing borrowers, recently announced that it would end its contract with the Ministry of Education. Its nine million customers need to be relocated to other service providers, a process that has been riddled with errors in the past.
Education Department spokeswoman Ms. Leon said the agency plans to open full negotiations “in the coming months” to set rules that would address regulatory issues for the public service program and others, but she did not provide any details.
Proponents hope the Biden Administration will help borrowers like Niki Woodard, who earned a masters degree in communications from Georgetown University and has worked in nonprofit – often low-paying – jobs for well over a decade. Ms. Woodard faithfully made her payments for 10 years and then requested relief on her remaining credit balance, which is now nearly $ 60,000.
