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HOUSTON – When word of President Joe Biden’s plan to forgive student loans hit the news cycle on Wednesday, the qualification for the greatest amount of debt forgiveness hinged on whether someone is or was a Pell grant recipient.
As the Associated Press reported here, Pell grants were created by the Higher Education Act in 1965 as a way to promote access to education. Federal Pell grants are special scholarships reserved for undergraduates and certain other students with the most significant financial need. The grants generally don’t need to be paid back, but they often don’t cover the full cost of college — so recipients take out additional loans.
The Biden administration is targeting Pell grant recipients for additional forgiveness “to smooth the transition back to repayment and help borrowers at highest risk of delinquencies or default once payments resume,” according to the Department of Education.
Roughly 27 million recipients of Pell grants will now be eligible for loan forgiveness, the Associated Press reported this week.
But how can you know whether you are or were a Pell grant recipient — particularly if you’ve been out of school for some time?
We wondered the same thing. This is how to get the answer to that question.
1. Go to StudentAid.gov. We checked on Thursday morning and the website was extremely sluggish as we’re sure more than a few million folks tried the same thing. Be patient. We eventually made it through to the site after about a minute of waiting.
2. Open your account. If you don’t have an account, get yourself an account by registering on Create an Account (do this if you don’t already have one or yours went defunct after you left school).
2. Open your account. If you don’t have an account, get yourself an account by registering on Create an Account (do this if you don’t already have one or yours went defunct after you left school).
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