When word of President Joe Biden’s plan to forgive student loans hit the news cycle on Wednesday, the qualification for the greatest amount of debt forgiveness hinged on whether someone is or was a Pell grant recipient.
As the Associated Press reported here, Pell grants were created by the Higher Education Act in 1965 as a way to promote access to education. Federal Pell grants are special scholarships reserved for undergraduates and certain other students with the most significant financial need. The grants generally don’t need to be paid back, but they often don’t cover the full cost of college — so recipients take out additional loans.
The Biden administration is targeting Pell grant recipients for additional forgiveness “to smooth the transition back to repayment and help borrowers at highest risk of delinquencies or default once payments resume,” according to the Department of Education.
Roughly 27 million recipients of Pell grants will now be eligible for loan forgiveness, the Associated Press reported this week.
But how can you know whether you are or were a Pell grant recipient -- particularly if you’ve been out of school for some time?
We wondered the same thing. This is how to get the answer to that question.
1. Go to StudentAid.gov. We checked on Thursday morning and the website was extremely sluggish as we’re sure more than a few million folks tried the same thing. Be patient. We eventually made it through to the site after about a minute of waiting.
2. Open your account. If you don’t have an account, get yourself an account by registering on Create an Account (do this if you don’t already have one or yours went defunct after you left school).
3. After filling in all of the fields, your account will be opened, but it may take one to three days for your account and loan details to be matched up with your Social Security Number.
4. Be patient. We did this and it took approximately two days for the verification process to complete. You’ll get an email telling you that it’s finished.
5. The information from your student loans will appear in your “My Dashboard” when you login again at StudentAid.gov after verification.
6. Whether you were a Pell recipient will be shown in that area. Here’s an example of how that will look below. You don’t have to (and we don’t recommend doing so if you’re scarred by the amount you took out), but you can drill down find more information about your loans at the “View Details” link.
As the Associated Press explained earlier this week, you qualify to have up to $10,000 forgiven if your loan is held by the Department of Education and you make less than $125,000 individually or $250,000 for a family. If you received Pell grants, you can have up to $20,000 forgiven. If you are a current borrower and a dependent student, you will be eligible for relief based on your parents’ income, rather than your own.
Did this process work for you? Let us know how it went for you in the comments.
COMPLETE COVERAGE:
Student loan forgiveness: This is what officials, A-listers and average Americans are saying about the Biden administration effort
Biden’s student loan plan: What we know and what we don’t
Student loan borrowers await Biden plan on debt forgiveness
Continue reading...
As the Associated Press reported here, Pell grants were created by the Higher Education Act in 1965 as a way to promote access to education. Federal Pell grants are special scholarships reserved for undergraduates and certain other students with the most significant financial need. The grants generally don’t need to be paid back, but they often don’t cover the full cost of college — so recipients take out additional loans.
The Biden administration is targeting Pell grant recipients for additional forgiveness “to smooth the transition back to repayment and help borrowers at highest risk of delinquencies or default once payments resume,” according to the Department of Education.
Roughly 27 million recipients of Pell grants will now be eligible for loan forgiveness, the Associated Press reported this week.
But how can you know whether you are or were a Pell grant recipient -- particularly if you’ve been out of school for some time?
We wondered the same thing. This is how to get the answer to that question.
How to check whether you’re a Pell recipient
1. Go to StudentAid.gov. We checked on Thursday morning and the website was extremely sluggish as we’re sure more than a few million folks tried the same thing. Be patient. We eventually made it through to the site after about a minute of waiting.
2. Open your account. If you don’t have an account, get yourself an account by registering on Create an Account (do this if you don’t already have one or yours went defunct after you left school).
3. After filling in all of the fields, your account will be opened, but it may take one to three days for your account and loan details to be matched up with your Social Security Number.
4. Be patient. We did this and it took approximately two days for the verification process to complete. You’ll get an email telling you that it’s finished.
5. The information from your student loans will appear in your “My Dashboard” when you login again at StudentAid.gov after verification.
6. Whether you were a Pell recipient will be shown in that area. Here’s an example of how that will look below. You don’t have to (and we don’t recommend doing so if you’re scarred by the amount you took out), but you can drill down find more information about your loans at the “View Details” link.
What does it mean if you’re a Pell recipient?
As the Associated Press explained earlier this week, you qualify to have up to $10,000 forgiven if your loan is held by the Department of Education and you make less than $125,000 individually or $250,000 for a family. If you received Pell grants, you can have up to $20,000 forgiven. If you are a current borrower and a dependent student, you will be eligible for relief based on your parents’ income, rather than your own.
Did this process work for you? Let us know how it went for you in the comments.
COMPLETE COVERAGE:
Student loan forgiveness: This is what officials, A-listers and average Americans are saying about the Biden administration effort
Biden’s student loan plan: What we know and what we don’t
Student loan borrowers await Biden plan on debt forgiveness
Continue reading...