Education Dept. Restores Debt Cancellation For Some Borrowers With Disabilities

The U.S. Department of Education says it will erase the federal student loan debts of tens of thousands of borrowers who can no longer work because they have significant disabilities. It's a small but important step toward improving a shambolic, bureaucratic process for hundreds of thousands of vulnerable borrowers who are legally entitled to debt relief, but haven't received it.

The announcement comes more than a year after an NPR investigation found just 28% of eligible borrowers had their loans erased, or were on track to, through the "Total and Permanent Disability Discharge" program. The U.S. Government Accountability Office and a bipartisan group of lawmakers had previously decried the program's ineffectiveness.

According to the department, more than 41,000 borrowers who have permanent disabilities willonly to have the debts restored during the pandemic after they failed to submit required income-monitoring paperwork correctly.