Biden's student-loan forgiveness 'does not go far enough' for seniors and people with disabilities facing 'crippling debt,' a Democratic lawmaker says

• A group of Democrats introduced a bill to wipe out student debt for Medicare and Social Security Disability Insurance recipients.
• Rep. Jamaal Bowman said Biden's broad debt relief "does not go far enough" to help those borrowers.

President Joe Biden's plan to forgive student debt for federal borrowers isn't enough for those who have been carrying loans for decades, Democrats say.

Last week, Democratic Reps. Jamaal Bowman, Adam Schiff, Raúl Grijalva, and Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick introduced the Student Loan Relief for Medicare and Social Security Recipients Act, which would fully wipe out student debt that dates back more than 20 years for Medicare and Social Security Disability Insurance recipients. The benefit would apply to both current recipients and those who enroll in the future.

More than three million Americans over 60 collectively owe more than $86 billion in student loans, per the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The debt load can be particularly burdensome for older borrowers with health issues who have to choose between paying their student debt or paying for healthcare. Social Security benefits are also at risk of seizure if a borrower defaults on paying their student loans.

"Far too many Americans have spent years of their lives faced with the terrible choice between paying off their loans and putting food on the table, paying for childcare, or paying medical bills," Bowman said in a statement. "This is especially the case for our most vulnerable communities. While President Biden's student loan cancellation plan is an important first step, it does not go far enough especially for the millions of seniors and people with disabilities who face crippling debt."

There is already a system in place for borrowers with disabilities to get debt relief, known as the total and permanent disability (TPD) discharge. But, as Insider previously reported, the process has been burdensome for borrowers. Under former President Barack Obama, anyone determined permanently disabled by a physician, the Social Security Administration, or the Department of Veteran Affairs was eligible for loan forgiveness, but a requirement to submit documentation during a three-year monitoring period shut many out of relief.

Biden's Education Department took steps to ease the process last year by waiving the requirement to submit paperwork. So far, it's resulted in $7 billion in debt relief for the impacted borrowers.

Still, older borrowers continue to deal with debt burdens some of them believe will follow them to their graves. One 70-year-old borrower previously told Insider that she doesn't see herself ever paying off the debt she acquired in 1990 in her lifetime. She still owes upward of $200,000.

"When student loans took over my life, I stopped looking forward to anything," she told Insider. "You are on a hamster wheel, and you will not get off. You know that you will never get off."

Many of them would stand to benefit from Biden's plan to forgive up to $20,000 in student debt for federal borrowers making under $125,000 a year. However, that plan is currently on pause due to conservative-backed lawsuits that are attempting to permanently block the relief from being implemented, and the fate of the relief — and millions of borrowers — now sits at the Supreme Court, which is set to hear arguments to the cases in February.