WASHINGTON (Gray DC) – The U.S. Department of Education is warning the public about possible scams tied to the release of the application for the President’s student loan forgiveness. That application is due to be released this month.
Washington News Bureau reporter Jamie Bittner asked Cardona when borrowers can expect the application to come out.
“That’s the million dollar question, right? We know in October it’s going to come out. We’re working on making sure we can produce something that the American people will go to and find easy, quick. And, you know, we’re doing well in terms of getting that product ready and making sure that it’s available for the American people soon. As I said before, it’s going to be in October. But, you know, more information will be found on studentaid.gov/debt-relief. It’ll share when it’s available. It’ll also share tips like the one, the email we sent yesterday that tell folks what not to look for or what not to do. That’s really important. So it’ll be coming out soon and we’re looking forward to making sure we take care of the almost 43 million people that are eligible for debt relief,” he said.
The Biden administration sent out an email Wednesday to reinforce the warning about scams.
Read the full warning from the Biden administration about scams here
“This email that went out yesterday is really to make sure folks understand what they should be doing, what they shouldn’t be doing. There are a lot of scammers out there and we want to be proactive and communicate with them. You know, that they (applicants) should only be getting information from our site. We want to do this before we launch so that they’re prepared and they’re not susceptible to any scammers out there that are trying to make a dollar off hardworking Americans that are eligible for debt relief,” said Cardona.
Secretary Miguel Cardona said nearly 6 million people signed up in a month to receive an email from the department when the application is officially released. He urges everyone to sign up for email alerts and then to wait until the application is released to take further action. All the information will be available on studentaid.gov.
The Biden administration adds, borrowers don’t need to pay anyone to obtain debt relief, so be wary of people asking for credit card numbers, account information or passwords.
“Anything that asks for a credit card number, anything that tells them that they can coach them through this process, it’s a scam. Look, we’re making this process simple. We’re making it clear studentaid.gov/debt-relief is where you get the information. If you’re on a url and it doesn’t have studentaid.gov in it, it’s not the right one. Get off of it,” said Cardona.
The President announced the expansion of student loan forgiveness this summer.
The program is intended to benefit people making less than $125,000 and households with less than $250,000 in income.
Pell Grant recipients can get up to $20,000 in relief.
Other borrowers could get up to $10,000.
The extension also freezes payment through December 31st.
Meanwhile, the opportunity to receive Public Service Loan Forgiveness is ongoing through October 31, 2022.
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