Nearly 153,000 people enrolled in Biden’s new student loan plan will get an email Wednesday that their debt is canceled

Washington CNN — Nearly 153,000 student loan borrowers currently enrolled in a new repayment plan launched by the Biden administration are expected to get an email Wednesday notifying them that their remaining federal student loan debt will be canceled, totaling about $1.2 billion.

The email is expected to include a congratulatory message from President Joe Biden, whose administration is eager to remind voters what it has done to address student loan debt as the presidential election ramps up.

“From day one of my Administration, I vowed to fix student loan programs so higher education can be a ticket to the middle class—not a barrier to opportunity,” the message reads.

Biden’s plans to provide student debt relief were dealt a significant blow when the Supreme Court rejected his signature student loan forgiveness program last year – but that hasn’t stopped his administration from finding other ways to help borrowers.

Nearly $138 billion of federal student loan debt has been canceled for almost 3.9 million borrowers since Biden took office.

The latest round of debt relief, announced Wednesday, will impact some borrowers who are enrolled in a new repayment plan known as SAVE (Saving on a Valuable Education), which the administration launched in August as the pandemic-related pause on payments was ending.

Under that plan, remaining federal student loan balances are erased for those who originally borrowed $12,000 or less and have made payments for at least 10 years.

At first, debt relief under SAVE was not scheduled to begin until July – but the Biden administration said last month that it would start ahead of schedule in February.

Most of the federal student loan debt cancellations that have taken place under Biden have come through programs that existed before he took office. These programs are generally limited to specific categories of borrowers, such as public-sector workers, people defrauded by for-profit colleges and borrowers who have paid for at least 20 years.

Under Biden, the Department of Education has canceled more federal student loan debt than during any previous administration – in part due to efforts to temporarily expand some debt relief programs and to correct past administrative errors made to borrowers’ student loan accounts.

Here are some of the ways the Biden administration is forgiving federal student loan debt: