9 million Americans wrongly told they were approved for student debt forgiveness
CBSN
About 9 million Americans with student loans who had applied for the Biden administration's student-debt forgiveness program mistakenly received emails last month that said their applications had been approved.
The messages were part of updates the Department of Education issued in November to inform 16 million debt relief applicants that they had been approved to have up to $20,000 forgiven. But an additional 9 million people received emails saying they had received loan forgiveness when they had not been approved for relief because the process was halted due to legal challenges, according to officials. And others who hadn't yet applied for the student loan relief program also received the email.
The error was made by Accenture Federal Services, a contractor with the Education Department, which sent the emails on November 22 and 23. The mistake may only compound confusion among some borrowers about the debt-relief program, which for now remains in limbo due to several legal challenges, with the Supreme Court earlier this month agreeing to hear one of the cases.
