Small student loans were forgiven after 10 years in repayment

If your federal student loans being repaid through SAVE had a total original principal balance of $12,000 or less and you had completed 120 monthly payments or the equivalent, the Education Department cancelled the rest of what you owed. Borrowers with higher original balances could qualify later: each extra $1,000 added 12 monthly payments. Enrolled borrowers did not have to apply for this forgiveness. The department identified eligible people and emailed them.

The SAVE rule originally set this shorter path to forgiveness to start in July 2024. In January, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona signed a notice moving implementation up to January 21, and cancellations began in February. President Joe Biden announced that nearly 153,000 borrowers had $1.2 billion in debt cancelled. At the time, 7.5 million people were enrolled in SAVE.

Seven Republican-led states sued. A federal judge stopped further SAVE forgiveness in June 2024, and the Eighth Circuit blocked more of the plan that August. In February 2025, the appeals court ordered the entire rule blocked. Congress later required SAVE borrowers to leave the plan by July 2028. The Trump administration then settled the lawsuit, and on March 10, 2026, the court vacated nearly all of the SAVE rule, ending the plan. Borrowers still on SAVE were told to switch plans.