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Student Loan Sites Crashed Under Huge Influx of Traffic After Biden Forgiveness Plan Announced

Even a page just explaining the relief plan buckled.

Intense interest from Americans with student-loan debt caused websites and phone lines to crash on Wednesday after President Biden announced his federal loan forgiveness plans. The website of studentaid.gov, which hosts a page explaining the details of the forgiveness program, had to run a virtual waiting room to enter the site late Wednesday to manage the flow of traffic. The website for Nelnet—one of the main providers of federal loan services—also crashed in the frenzy, with the organization tweeting Wednesday that it was “experiencing extremely high website and phone traffic.” The onslaught began after Biden unveiled his plan to forgive up to $10,000 of debt for people making less than $125,000 a year, or under $250,000 for married couples who file jointly. Students who received a Pell Grant will have up to $20,000 forgiven.