President Joe Biden on Tuesday launched a promotional blitz for his new program that helps student loan borrowers repay their debt, just weeks before millions of Americans are set to receive a loan bill for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic.

The Biden administration is mobilizing to convince borrowers across the country to sign up for the new income-driven repayment program — dubbed the “SAVE plan” — which caps interest accrual and lowers the monthly payment amount for many borrowers.

“It’s the most affordable student loan plan ever,” Biden said in a video released by the White House on Tuesday, describing the program as a major reform to a student loan system “that hurt borrowers for much too long.”

“If you’re eligible for the SAVE Plan, sign up now so you can lower your monthly payments in advance of payments resuming this fall,” Biden said.

  • Flying Squid
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    311 months ago

    My parents were/are (Mom’s still alive) well-to-do. I was lucky in that I didn’t have to take out student loans. No one is giving me welfare.

    My wife, on the other hand, could sure use some relief from the student loan debt she incurred because her family is not the privileged one mine is.

    We’re fiscally responsible. We pay our bills on time. We have a fixed-rate mortgage. We have two cars, but one is paid off.

    We’re in our mid-40s and she still has a ton of student loan debt. That’s insanity.

    • @SCB@lemmy.world
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      -311 months ago

      Sounds like you have plenty of money but only pay the minimum payments on her loans, which is a questionable choice at best.

      • Flying Squid
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        211 months ago

        It may sound like that, but that would be false. We live paycheck-to-paycheck like a majority of Americans.

        We pay what we can afford to pay.

        Believe it or not, people who grow up with wealthy parents aren’t necessarily wealthy themselves.

        • @Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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          -911 months ago

          Dude you have a mortgage. You are not paycheck to paycheck, you have assets you can pull equity from at any time. You may not be saving cash but you are saving assets.

          You are not poor.

          Let me say that again.

          YOU ARE NOT POOR.

          Tired of all these upper middle class people pretending like they’re lining up at food banks. You’re good, dude. You made it. You are doing better than most. You don’t need relief. You know who needs relief? The dude who never had the opportunity to go to college in the first place and is making $20,000 a year.

          • Flying Squid
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            11 months ago

            I never said I was poor. But going into more debt would make us poor.

            I’m certainly not upper middle class.

              • Flying Squid
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                311 months ago

                Nowadays? We bought it 10 years ago. In a depressed small city with high unemployment. It’s also only worth about $200,000. You know how low that is for a house right now?

                Maybe don’t make assumptions.