Stress, confusion and uncertainty as borrowers navigate Biden debt relief plans

When student loan repayments began last October, Rachel Grace was faced with a painful financial choice: start making payments or drop her health insurance coverage. She chose her loans and has since been crossing her fingers that she stays healthy.

“We’re already all pinching pennies. It was that big health insurance cost every month that I thought was the one place where, at least for now, fingers crossed, I can do without so that I can tackle this loan payment,” said Grace, who is 39 and works in marketing communications in Nebraska. “Of course, that could change in an instant, and that’s scary.”

But this week, Grace got the news she'd been in financial limbo over for months — her federal loans were being forgiven, wiping out a roughly $300 a month payment, under a Biden administration plan to clear the loan balances for those who have been making payments for at least 20 years.

After the Supreme Court rejected President Joe Biden’s sweeping debt forgiveness proposal and a Covid-era pause on student loan payments expired, millions of borrowers have been faced with tough financial choices and a web of new debt relief plans and administrative delays that have left many in limbo over if and when their debt will be forgiven, said student debt counselors and borrowers.

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions,” said Betsy Mayotte, the head of the Institute of Student Loan Advisors, a nonprofit that provides free student loan advice. “I have seen a significant number of borrowers who have had relief, but on the flip side, because everything has had to happen really fast, it’s also caused some confusion for borrowers and it’s caused some bumps in the road.”

But the effects of that relief are starting to be felt by