On Tuesday November 22nd, 2022 federal student loan borrowers began receiving emails from the Department of Education entitled “Update on Student Loan Debt Relief and the Status of Your Application“. These emails appear to be notifying student loan borrowers who have applied for the $10K or $20K blanket forgiveness program that their applications have been internally approved and administrative steps have been taken to facilitate the student loan discharge in the event that the current presidential administration prevails in court. The blanket student loan forgiveness program of $10K and $20K was recently ruled unlawful by a federal district court and has been vacated. The current presidential administration has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the federal court ruling as well as a 2nd stay from another federal court in an all out attempt to gain some legal authority to proceed with the program. The U.S. Supreme Court is currently adjudicating the matter.
What does this mean for Hope Credit borrowers?
As of today Tuesday November 22nd, 2022 there is no change in the status of the blanket forgiveness program. It remains unlawful according to the U.S. federal judiciary. The emails that are being sent by the Department of Education are an indication that if the current presidential administration were to prevail with the U.S. Supreme Court, then the actual forgiveness event could happen very quickly and federal student loan borrowers could see their balances reduced in a relatively short time frame given the work that is being done by the Department of Education to prepare all of the steps necessary except for the actual forgiveness.
Hope Credit borrowers have been reporting an inconsistent and seemingly random delivery of these emails to the student loan borrowers who have applied for the forgiveness. Some borrowers who applied on the first day that the application was made available to the public have yet to receive these update emails from the Department of Education. Others who applied closer to November 10th, 2022 just before the application was taken offline have reported receiving these emails. However the emails do not suggest that any action can be taken by a student loan borrower to increase their likelihood of receiving the forgiveness or influence the speed at which they will have their balances reduced. The emails seem to conclude that the entire fate of the blanket forgiveness program remains in the hands of the federal court system.