BUFFALO, N.Y. — On Wednesday, President Joe Biden announced up to $10,000 in student loan forgiveness for individuals making below $125,000, and couples making below $250,000.
In addition, anyone who had to apply for Pell grants during college can get up to $20,000 in relief, so now there are some borrowers trying to remember if they received a Pell grant in the past.
According to the White House, more than 94 percent of Pell grant recipients make under $60,000 a year, and a student's eligibility is based on a few factors.
"Eligibility is based on income, the number of people in your household. Also, they look at to see if other people in your household are currently in college as well," said Robby Dunn, vice president of counseling at Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Buffalo.
He says typically Pell grant recipients will be awarded around $6,900 per year, after they fill out a FAFSA application.
With a range of grants available to students needing financial assistance, and the amount of time it's been since some borrowers have applied for them, some may be wondering if they received Pell grants.
You can check by heading to studentaid.gov. Put in your existing FSA ID or create one, then check your aid summary.
There are still a lot of questions surrounding the loan forgiveness.
One of them is for parent plus loans.
"If parents took out parent plus loans for three different students, will they qualify for $30,000 in forgiveness? My guess is probably just $10,000 for those loans that are taken out in their name," Dunn said. "But any loans taken out by the student borrowers themselves, they will receive the forgiveness for their own loans."
The other is what next steps qualifying borrowers will need to take.
According to the Federal Student Aid website, if the U.S. Department of Education does not have your income, or if you don't know whether they have that data, the Biden administration will "launch a simple application in the coming weeks."
It will be available before the pause on federal student loan repayments end Dec. 31.
You can sign up for email updates from the department here.