America Counts: Stories Behind the Numbers
Who Is Impacted by Student Loan Forgiveness and How?
An analysis of recent U.S. Census Bureau data shows that parts of the student debt forgiveness plan announced by the administration last month — one of the largest ever — would completely eliminate student debt for a number of borrowers.
The plan would forgive up to $10,000 in federal student debt for individuals making less than $125,000 a year and married couples making less than $250,000 a year. Additionally, the student loans of income-eligible individuals who received Pell grants would be reduced by up to $20,000.
The Census Bureau’s recently released 2021 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) provides information about student debt balances as of December 31, 2020. Although loan balances would normally change over two years, pandemic policies allowed borrowers to temporarily pause payments without interest.
In this article, we investigate who among adults not enrolled in college with at least a high school degree will benefit — and by how much — from this proposed policy, assuming all reported student loans in the SIPP are federal and that no one’s student debt will be reduced by more than $10,000.
Continue reading to learn more about:
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Who will benefit from $10,000 in student loan forgiveness?
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How much of a difference can $10,000 in student loan relief make?
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The data
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