DENVER — Critical parts of the Biden administration’s student loan relief plan are currently held up in court, leaving borrowers with questions about what to do next.
Alexander Kimbrell said that paying back his student loans has been challenging.
"I switched over to an income-based repayment plan, which gave me a lot of relief, but also, the principal balance never went down. It's pretty much the same as it was when I graduated college 12 years ago," Kimbrell said.
Kimbrell is just one of the many borrowers who are struggling to pay back their student loans. President Joe Biden is trying to provide relief, but a court case is currently holding up one key part of the SAVE program, which stands for Saving on a Valuable Education.
Denver7 spoke with student loan and bankruptcy attorney Karen Cody-Hopkins to better understand what's going on.
"So if they got a bill that's supposed to be paid in July under the SAVE plan. They should plan to pay that now there aren't any horrible consequences if they don't because of the on-ramp plan, which says that they're not going put you in default if you don't make plan payments over the summer, but they should pay now if they've been put in a forbearance, they should wait to hear from their servicer, and that will probably come off. They'll probably have a payment due in August," Hopkins said.
Cody-Hopkins says parts of the plan that include recalculating payments to 5 percent of your discretionary income and more will continue.
"It had an interest forgiveness piece that if your payment, which is based on your income and some other factors, didn't pay your full interest in a month, the balance would be forgiven, which was new," Hopkins said.
Cody-Hopkins says if you need help navigating your situation, you should go to Studentaid.gov for the latest information.
