White House’s $6B Student Debt Relief Includes Nursing Industry

• As part of the White House’s plan goal to fix the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, an additional $5.8 billion has been approved for student debt relief among public service workers.
• Nurses are eligible to have their loans forgiven, if they meet the PSLF qualifications.
• The average current student loan debt for nurses is upwards of $40,000, according to a recent Laurel Road survey.

Nurses are among the public service workers who could soon receive student debt relief, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

“For too long, our nation’s teachers, nurses, social workers, firefighters, and other public servants faced logistical troubles and trap doors when they tried to access the debt relief they were entitled to under the law,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a March news release. 

Last month, $5.8 billion of additional student loan debt relief was approved due to “fixes made by the [White House] to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF),” the department said. Total PSLF relief now sits at $62.5 billion for 871,000 borrowers. 

The American Nurses Association said in a statement provided to Nursing CE Central that it supports student debt relief and welcomed the additional PSLF funds.

“By updating archaic rules that did not count time repaying loans even though employed by a qualified public service employer, the PSLF program will continue to move public servants closer to debt relief,” the ANA stated. “Whether through PSLF, or other student debt relief programs for nurses such as the Nurse Corps Loan Repayment Program, ANA urges the [White House] to drive more investment in outreach and education to ensure nurses with the most barriers to relief have the information and support needed.”

Average Student Debt for Nurses

The average, current student loan debt for nurses is upwards of $40,000, according to a recently released Laurel Road survey of 500 U.S. nurses and 300 U.S. doctors. This is in comparison to the average pre-tax income of nearly $81,000. Released in February, the survey found that the average nurse expects to take a decade to repay their loans.

Nursing also is among the Top 30 professions with the highest student loan payments, according to a December 2023 Student Loan Planner analysis. Based on a standard, 10-year repayment plan, the analysis determined that the average student debt is nearly $136,000 with monthly payments of $1,459.

History of Public Service Loan Forgiveness

Congress established the PSLF Program in 2007, giving borrowers in public service who make regular loan payments for a decade the opportunity to have their remaining balance forgiven, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. 

The first cohort became eligible for loan forgiveness in 2017, but the program had denial rates “upwards of 99%,” the GAO stated in a 2022 blog post. Being in the wrong loan program or wrong repayment plan were among the reasons for denial at the time.

In the years since, the Employer Certification Form was established and the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018 “temporarily expanded PSLF (TEPSLF), which allowed borrowers who met other qualifications for the program except for their payment plans to be considered for forgiveness,” according to Navigate, a student loan resource. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 led to the CARES Act, which froze interest rates on student loans and suspended loan payments. 

The DOE had approved $42 billion in PSLF for more than 615,000 applicants since 2021, according to a May 2023 announcement. 

As of March 2024, nearly 4 million Americans have received loan forgiveness under the current White House administration, compared to a total of roughly 7,000 previously. 

“We hope this relief provides borrowers and their families some much needed breathing room,” U.S. DOE Under Secretary James Kvaal said in the March release. 

Am I Eligible for Student Debt Relief?

Industry professionals can use the PSLF Help Tool to determine if they are eligible for loan forgiveness. 

Nearly 380,000 public service workers who are within two years of being eligible for forgiveness through PSLF received an email in late March notifying them that “if they continue in their public service work, they will be eligible for forgiveness within that timeframe,” the DOE release stated. 

Nurses who don’t qualify through the White House program can pursue other options, such as the Nurse Corps Loan Repayment Program or the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) Loan Repayment Program. 

The Bottom Line

Nursing is among the Top 30 professions with high student loan debt, but the PSLF Program aims to help alleviate the financial burden. An additional $5.8 billion was recently approved for the program, which would cancel remaining debt for qualifying individuals. Those who don’t qualify can still seek out debt relief through other programs that are geared specifically toward the nursing profession. 

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