Joe Biden approves 4.5bn in student debt relief just before polls

US President Joe Biden announced Thursday further student debt relief for public servants amounting to around $4.5 billion, with just over two weeks to go until the presidential election.

This will help around 60,000 debtors nationwide, said the White House, touting Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’s efforts to improve loan forgiveness since taking office.

Harris is the Democratic nominee in November’s presidential candidacy, running against Republican former president Donald Trump.

The statement arrived at a time when families are struggling with rising living costs since the COVID-19 pandemic, and voters have identified the economy as a key issue in polls.

Biden said in a statement that with the latest move, more than one million people have had their debt cancelled under Public Service Loan Forgiveness.

The program promises student debt forgiveness for teachers, nurses, and other public servants after 10 years of public service and 10 years of payments.

“But for too long, the government failed to live up to its commitments, and only 7,000 people had ever received forgiveness,” Biden said.

“I will never stop working to make higher education affordable,” he added.

Harris said in her statement that higher education “should be a pathway to economic opportunity not a lifetime of debt.”

She, too, promised to “continue our work to lower costs, make higher education more affordable, and relieve the burden of student debt.”

Biden has embarked on efforts to cancel student debt for millions of Americans, after a student loan payment freeze instituted by Trump during the coronavirus pandemic.

Americans hold $1.6 trillion in student loans, and some end up repaying them over decades as they start jobs and families.