About 7.5 million enrollees in the Biden administration’s defunct SAVE plan will have to enroll in a legal repayment plan.
Millions of student loan borrowers who thought they wouldn’t have to pay back their student loans under former President Joe Biden’s loan forgiveness plan found out on March 27 that they will have to start making payments on the money they borrowed.
The U.S. Department of Education began notifying 7.5 million borrowers on March 27 who enrolled in Biden’s “Saving on a Valuable Education” (SAVE) plan that they must exit the plan and enter a new federal repayment plan.
“Today’s guidance, which every borrower enrolled in the defunct SAVE plan will receive over the next week, puts the Biden Administration’s illegal student loan bailout agenda to rest once and for all,” Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent said. “For years, borrowers have been caught in a confusing cycle of uncertainty, but the Trump administration’s policy is simple: if you take out a loan, you must pay it back.”
Borrowers enrolled in the SAVE plan will be given at least 90 days to enter a new repayment plan of their choice, such as the Repayment Assistance Plan, which will start on July 1, according to Kent.
The SAVE plan was the Biden administration’s third and final attempt at handing out mass student loan forgiveness. The plan was blocked repeatedly by federal, district, and appellate courts.
The Trump administration moved in December 2025 to dismantle the SAVE plan. The Education Department reached a settlement with Missouri and six other Republican-led states that sued to block the SAVE plan.
The plan allowed borrowers who originally took out $12,000 or less to have their debts forgiven after 10 years of qualifying payments. It also calculated monthly bills based on a small percentage of a borrower’s income, which reduced payments to as low as zero dollars for millions.
The debt relief ended in spring 2024, when a federal district court intervened to stop further debt discharges.
Estimates showed that the plan would have cost taxpayers more than $342 billion over 10 years, according to the Education Department.
