27K borrowers eligible for student loan relief in Michigan

(FOX 2) - Among the hundreds of thousands of people who can expect student loan relief this summer, 27,000 are from Michigan.

Student loan borrowers from the state will be granted more than $1.26 billion in loan forgiveness. The money was first announced by the federal government last Friday when the Biden Administration said it would forgive $39 billion.

The Income Driven Repayment (IDR) follows the president's original effort to forgive some $400 billion in student loan debt before the Supreme Court overruled the executive order. In the following order, more than 800,000 student loan borrowers were eligible.

"I have long said that college should be a ticket to the middle class - not a burden that weighs down on families for decades," Biden said. "My Administration is delivering on that commitment. Starting today, over 800,000 student loan borrowers who have been repaying their loans for 20 years or more will see $39 billion of their loans discharged because of steps my Administration took to fix failures of the past."

More information can be found at StudentAid.gov/idr.

MORE: Biden admin cancels $39B in student loan debt for 800,000-plus borrowers

How the program works is an IDR plan sets a borrower's monthly student loan payment at a manageable amount. It's determined by the borrower's income and family size. From there, the plan will determine the number of required payments by looking at when the borrower took out loans, the types of loans they borrowed, and whichever plan the borrower was enrolled in.

There is also forgiveness available for any borrowers that have made 240 or 300 monthly payments - about 20-25 years.

Eligible borrowers will get an email from the education department about certain discharges.