An extensive number of student loan websites crashed after President Biden announced the much-awaited student debt relief plan.
According to the reports, thousands of users flooded the loan websites resulting in the websites crashing and were not available to be accessed.
The biggest student loan service provider, Nelnet, which processes about 40% of all the student loan applications under federal law, was trending on Twitter after the website crashed and people could not access it.
Another popular service provider Federal Agency for Student Aid also known FAFSA also experienced a crash when the White House formally announced the debt relief plan.
Other famous websites such as Aidvantage, MOHELA, EdFinancial Services, etc. also experienced heavy traffic that slowed down their servers.
A spokesperson of Nelnet Ben Kiser stated that they were caught totally off guard because “servicers and borrowers are learning about this plan simultaneously through the media.”
“We don’t have details to share with borrowers who want to know about their eligibility and a possible timeline for cancellation when they call in or visit our website,” Ben Kiser said.
President Biden announced a hefty $10,000 student loan forgiveness on Wednesday for students who have earnings of under $125,000 annually. Still, if they are receiving the Pell Grants for attending college then they are eligible for debt cancellation of about $20,000.
This plan is said to give relief to about 43 million borrowers including a maximum of 20 million to have their federal debt getting canceled altogether.
The loan repayments have been on pause since the Covid-19 pandemic and it is expected that they will remain paused this year as well after being “extended one final time.”
The White House revealed that it is expecting that around 27 million students will get a relief of $20,000 under this student debt relief plan and 60% of them would be receiving the Pell Grants. As the news started making rounds after the White House announcement, it led to confusion among people as the complexity of the debt loan relief plan was not explained in the announcement. People resorted to getting information through websites resulting in crashing their servers.
