Published: Less than 2 hours ago
US President Joe Biden announced on Friday that nearly 22 million Americans have applied for relief from their student loans under his new rescheduling – but just hours later a court announced that the initiative had been halted.
Online applications for the president’s controversial student loan write-off initiative opened this week. According to the president’s plan, the federal student debt of many Americans will be reduced by 10,000 dollars, corresponding to roughly 110,000 kroner.
“Five minutes”
People with federal student debt who also received special financial aid due to bad finances would have their debt written down by an additional $10,000, according to the proposal. According to the White House, the student debt reform means that upwards of 20 million Americans will have their student debts completely written off.
– It takes less than five minutes, Joe Biden said at a speech at a university in Delaware on Friday, about the smooth application process, according to him.
According to him, 22 million people have already applied, which is more than half of those the White House estimates will be entitled to the support.
But just hours later, a federal appeals court imposed a temporary halt on the plans at the request of six Republican-controlled states. It is unclear how the stop will affect those who have already applied.
Received criticism
According to Biden’s plan, the student loan write-offs are to be given to those who borrowed before July 1 of this year, and earn less than $125,000 a year.
More than 43 million Americans have federal student debt, with an average debt equivalent to about SEK 400,000.
The reform has been criticized for being unfair to those who have already paid off their debts and that the move could fuel inflation. It also does not help the low-income students who never applied to college or university, or to solve the underlying problems of expensive tuition fees.