Thousands of Nevadans to get student loan relief

More than 6,800 Nevadans will receive federal student loan forgiveness totaling $330 million in the coming weeks.

The U.S. Department of Education released state-level data Tuesday showing how many people are eligible.

Affected borrowers made qualifying monthly payments for 20 or 25 years, depending on the type of loan and income-driven repayment plan.

The federal government said the automatic loan relief is a response to “historical failures” in administering the program due to payments that weren’t accurately accounted for.

“For far too long, borrowers fell through the cracks of a broken system that failed to keep accurate track of their progress towards forgiveness,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a statement Friday.

Income-driven repayment plans are supposed to forgive any remaining balance after borrowers make a certain number of monthly payments.

Last week, the education department began notifying nearly 804,000 borrowers nationwide — who have a total of $39 billion in loans — of their eligibility. Of those, 6,820 are Nevadans.

It comes after the U.S. Supreme Court in late June struck down President Joe Biden’s plan to forgive up to $20,000 in student loan debt for millions of Americans.

Contact Julie Wootton-Greener at jgreener@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2921. Follow @julieswootton on Twitter.