‘HUMAN ERROR’

9M Student Debtors Wrongly Told Their Relief Applications Were Approved: Report

The subject line of a message by a Department of Education contractor incorrectly informed debt relief applicants that their requests had been approved, Insider reported.

In late November, a tech-service contractor to the Department of Education fired off an email to nine million hopeful applicants to President Joe Biden’s federal student debt relief program, mistakenly informing them in the subject line that their requests had been approved, according to Insider. The outlet reported Sunday that the Nov. 22 and 23 email had carried the subject line, “Your Student Loan Debt Relief Application Has Been Approved,” when in actuality it should have been entitled, “Update on Student Loan Debt Relief,” to inform the recipient that their applications had been received. Despite the false subject line, the content of the email remained accurate, Insider reported. The mistake was attributed to “human error” in a statement by Accenture Federal Services, the contractor responsible for the message. An Education Department spokesperson told Insider that it was working with Accenture to take “corrective action” on the matter. Shortly after a series of legal challenges that all but halted the program’s progress were launched, the White House said that 26 million Americans had applied for student loan forgiveness, and that the government had approved 16 million of the requests.