What is FAFSA and What is Joe Biden’s Plan to Forgive Student Loans?

August 25, 2022

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) which is funded by the US federal government to provide financial support to students to attend college.

On August 24, 2022, several users who tried to apply for financial aid on the FAFSA website encountered difficulties. Users started reporting troubles with the FAFSA website at 11 a.m. EST on August 24, 2022.

The issue came up when US President Joe Biden’s announced his plan to forgive $10,000 in student loans.

At around 2.45 pm, Biden held his news conference, and between 2 and 3 pm, there were about 1000 reports of website problems.

79 percent of users experienced login issues, while another 18 percent experienced issues with the website, according to Downdetector. Only 3% of students at the same time reported having problems with their financial aid.

What is the problem with the FAFSA?

Users mainly encountered issues when trying to get into their FAFSA accounts to see if they qualified for loan forgiveness.

One user wrote: “The site collapsed, so I can’t enroll in the income-driven plan to determine if I qualify for loan forgiveness. LOL”

The majority of users reported getting an error message when attempting to enter their accounts, and one user speculated that this was likely due to everyone wanting to check what kind of debt they had to see if it was being forgiven.

In response, some users advised emptying the cache and attempting to log in once again.

Another user said: “After today’s statement, everyone is attempting to check the status of their loans. It should work out if you give it a day.”

What did Joe Biden say regarding the cancellation of student loans?

On August 24, Biden said that $10k in student loan debt will be forgiven per borrower, although he added that this would only apply to people making less than $125k annually or less than $250k annually for families.

Biden announced that he will erase up to $20k in loans for each eligible middle- to low-income Pell Grant recipient.

According to him, in the coming weeks, the Department of Education will make public its efforts to advise loan borrowers on how they might receive loan relief.

In keeping with my campaign promise, my Administration is announcing a plan to give working and middle class families breathing room as they prepare to resume federal student loan payments in January 2023.

I'll have more details this afternoon. pic.twitter.com/kuZNqoMe4I
— President Biden (@POTUS) August 24, 2022