On Monday, the U.S. Department of Education launched its application for student loan forgiveness, allowing an estimated 27 million borrowers to seek debt relief. Individual borrowers making under $125,000 or families making under $250,000 can apply for a $10,000 reduction in their loan bills. Pell Grant recipients can receive $20,000.
“This is a huge step,” said Dr. Dominique Baker, an associate professor of education policy and leadership at Southern Methodist University. “This is a significant part of acknowledging the ways that the student loan system has done a disservice to borrowers.” 
Dr. Dominique Baker
The application process is designed to be straightforward. A press release from the White House Office of Political Strategy and Outreach claimed that the application could be filled out in less than five minutes. It doesn’t require a Federal Student Aid ID or the uploading of any documents. Applicants need only to fill in their full name, social security number, phone number and email. The application is available in English and Spanish, as well as in desktop and mobile formats.
According to Baker, simple and accessible is exactly how the form should be.
“It conforms to the best practices of what we would hope an application does for government benefits,” she said. “It’s relatively short. It's all information that is generally at the person's fingertips, in their head already. The amount of time and energy that someone has to put into completing it has been reduced as much as possible.”
Based on the crashes and glitches associated with the launches of other high-profile government websites, such as 2013’s Obamacare sign-up website and this year’s COVID-19 test website, borrowers could be forgiven for being skeptical of the new application.
