(NEW YORK) — Just a week before repayments on federal student loans were scheduled to resume after a two-year pause, President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced a sweeping new policy to cancel debt for millions of Americans and reform the payment process going forward.

Students who attended college on Pell grants — federal dollars awarded to low-income students who can only contribute a certain amount toward their tuition — will owe up to $20,000 less on their federal loans if they make under $125,000 per year. And non-Pell borrowers making less than $125,000 will owe up to $10,000 less on their federal loans.

The president is also adjusting how much borrowers will have to pay each month and is extending the federal pause on repayments until the end of the year.

And while borrowers should keep their eyes peeled for specific details from the Department of Education (DOE) over the next few days and weeks, here is everything to know so far:

Who will this help?

Biden’s plan will erase at least $10,000 in federal student loan debt for Americans who made less than $125,000 per year in the 2020 or 2021 tax year, or less than $250,000 as a household.

For Americans under that same income bracket who took out Pell grants to pay for college, it would erase an additional $10,000 in debt, bringing the total forgiveness up to $20,000.

The income cap refers to adjusted gross income, a DOE spokesperson told ABC News, referring to income that already excludes retirement plan contributions, alimony and certain other expenses.

Current students are also eligible for federal loan forgiveness, so long as their parents meet the income criteria of $125,000 for a single provider or $250,000 for a married couple who file their taxes jointly.

The forgiveness applies to anyone who took out their loans before July 2022.

In a speech on Wednesday, Biden said 95% of borrowers will get some relief from his plan, or a total of 43 million out of the 45 million total student borrowers.

Nearly 45%, or 20 million people, will have their debt fully canceled, he said.

DOE data shows that erasing even $10,000 of debt could settle the balances of about one-third of federal loan borrowers. An analysis from Princeton University and the University of California at Merced that incorporated incomes found the same.

And for the other half of borrowers who will still have loans to continue paying down, Biden said the DOE would be modifying the terms.

The minimum required monthly payments for undergraduate loans will be cut from 10% down to 5% of peoples’ discretionary income, while the amount of income that is considered non-discretionary — or protected from repayment — was raised to guarantee that no borrower who is making around the annual equivalent of a $15-an-hour minimum wage will have to make monthly payments.

The plan will also ensure that people who took out an original loan of $12,000 or less will have their balance forgiven after 10 years of payments, which was brought down from the initial timeline of 20 years.

The DOE estimates that this change will allow community college graduates to be debt-free within 10 years.

“I think the administration is structurally attempting to fix many of the problems that have plagued the inconvenient payment system. Whether or not it gets the job done is going to depend on the details,” said Persis Yu, policy director and managing counsel for the Student Borrower Protection Center, a leading advocacy organization focused on alleviating student debt.

When will debt cancellation kick in?

Some borrowers will immediately qualify for debt cancellation. But more than likely, it will take months for the vast majority of borrowers, experts told ABC News.

In a briefing with reporters on Wednesday morning, the White House said the DOE would release details on the process in the coming days.

Some people will need to submit a “simple application” on studentaid.gov showing that they meet the income caps, a White House official said, while about eight million people will see their debt canceled automatically because the DOE already has their info on hand.

But because the DOE does not have income data for the other two-thirds of borrowers, they will need to receive authorization from those borrowers to obtain such data from the Internal Revenue Service — or borrowers will have to certify their income under penalty of perjury, financial aid expert Mark Kantrowitz told ABC News in an interview.

“So you might have some borrowers getting forgiveness within a month or two, immediately, and then some borrowers taking a few additional months and they would have to complete that form,” Kantrowitz said.

“One thing I recommend all borrowers do is make sure your contact information, your mailing address, your email address or telephone numbers are up to date with your loan servicer and on the studentaid.gov website,” Kantrowitz said.

At a briefing later Wednesday, Susan Rice, Biden’s domestic policy adviser, told reporters that “anybody can go today to studentaid.gov and provide their email address and they will be notified when the website is available for people to fill out a very simple short form attesting to their income and become eligible.”

But just how “simple” the application is for people, and how many people know about it, is a subject of concern for debt-relief advocates who think a complicated process could keep people from taking advantage of the new policy.

“There’s a lot of low-income folks who will never learn about this application. They will not be able to figure it out, they won’t have the resources available to navigate the bureaucratic process,” Yu said. “And so in imposing this hurdle, we’re actually putting in a barrier for the folks who need it the most.”

The solution, Yu argued, would be a broad cancellation that does not try to target people based on their income, which would make the process easier to execute by the DOE.

How much will this cost the government?

A recent study by the University of Pennsylvania’s business school found that erasing $10,000 in student loan debt will cost about $300 billion. If the program continues for 10 years, the cost becomes $330 billion, or $344 billion if there is no income limit, per the report.

The changes to the monthly loan payments will also affect the cost, but the White House declined to give specifics on Wednesday, saying only that the cost would be spread over time and would be difficult to estimate.

“It’s fairly complicated, as a process, for determining the cost implications,” a White House official said.

Because the federal government backs many student loans, U.S. taxpayers will likely foot the bill — something Biden addressed directly on Wednesday by comparing student debt cancellation to the Paycheck Protection Program, a loan forgiveness program for businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“No one complained that those loans caused inflation. A lot of these folks in small businesses are working in middle-class families. They needed help. It was the right thing to do,” Biden said.

“So the outrage over helping working people with student loans, I think is just simply wrong, dead wrong,” he said.

He also pushed back against Republicans who he pointed out, under former President Donald Trump, passed a massive tax cut that benefited many wealthy Americans and corporations, with the GOP arguing the move aided the economy.

In contrast, Biden said Wednesday, his plan would benefit the “middle class and working families. It helps both current and future borrowers. And it’ll fix a badly broken system.”

Does this policy fulfill Biden’s campaign promise?

While the president did pledge to cancel $10,000 in student loan debt on the trail — a commitment he has now made good on — that was just one of his vows around reforming the higher-education system.

Many critics who want to see Biden do more have pointed out that as a candidate he also proposed forgiving all tuition loan debt from undergraduate students that earn less than $125,000 per year and who attended two- or four-year public colleges, as he wrote in a 2020 Medium article.

“The federal government would pay the monthly payment in lieu of the borrower until the forgivable portion of the loan was paid off. This benefit would also apply to individuals holding federal student loans for tuition from private HBCUs and MSIs,” Biden wrote then.

That pledge led some progressives to commend the progress so far but still call for more.

“While not as high as we called for, this crucial step from the President keeps his campaign promise and responds to calls from the CPC, the Black Caucus, the Hispanic Caucus, and millions across the country to address the crippling issue of student debt,” the Congressional Progressive Caucus said in a statement on Wednesday.

Yu, with the Student Borrower Protection Center, also applauded the move — but said it would be important to watch the rollout with a critical eye.

“We’re very excited to see him take this bold action, which is one of the things he’s promised,” Yu said.

But because Biden pledged debt cancellation for all, while the current policy is tailored to people under a certain income, Yu said the positive impact remains to be seen.

“I think really the test will be like: Are we able to get this relief to all of the borrowers who are eligible for it? That will be the real test of whether or not he’s kept his campaign promise,” Yu said.

With midterm elections roughly two months away, it also remains to be seen if erasing federal loan debt for some borrowers could bolster Biden’s underwater approval rating.

The plan is also likely to face pushback from those who opted not to attend college altogether because of the cost of doing so.

To that end, the new policy also stipulates that borrowers who meet the income requirements and recently paid off their loans can request a $10,000 refund or the total of payments made since March 13, 2020.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — After working for seven years in the corporate world as an aerospace engineer, Anita Vandyke said she needed to shed the material excess in her life and “give more.”

Vandyke is now a zero waste lifestyle author and influencer promoting the protection of the Earth and its resources.

Vandyke, who lives in Australia, runs the popular Instagram account @rocket_science, where she documents her own minimalist and zero waste journey. She’s also authored three books on zero waste living.

According to a 2020 study from researchers at Penn State, the average U.S. household wastes around 30% of the food it buys, translating to approximately $240 billion in food waste annually, nationwide.

The practice of zero-waste living traditionally means minimizing material consumption and waste to conserve natural resources and reduce pollution, Vandyke told ABC News. But for her, it also encompasses a mindset of cherishing all resources, including money, time and relationships.

Vandyke said her zero waste lifestyle was partly inspired by her childhood and upbringing by her Chinese immigrant parents.

“I learned all these kind of zero waste environmental tips out of necessity in terms of the frugal living that we had to do growing up,” she said. “A lot of these tips and tricks are actually not only saving the planet, but they also save money as well.”

As a working single mom, Vandyke said preserving the environment also means, to her, prolonging time spent with loved ones — the “only nonrenewable resource that we have.”

“We have to make sure that we look after our family, ourselves and also the environment in the limited time we have,” said Vandyke, whose husband died this year from cancer.

After graduating from medical school last year, Vandyke is now working as a doctor in Sydney, drawing connections between her work in health care and her environmental habits.

“To have healthy people, thriving people who have good soil, good air, good water, we have to have a healthy planet,” she said.

Vandyke assured anyone scared to plunge into a minimalist lifestyle that small changes can make a cumulative difference.

“Aim for effort, not perfection,” she said.

Here are few simple ways Vandyke said families can reduce their waste and live greener:

Make a family grocery list

As simple as it sounds, Vandyke said keeping a running grocery list during the week is a convenient way to ensure you’re not buying too much or too little before finishing your remaining food. She writes the list on a small whiteboard on the refrigerator.

“I also get people to contribute in the family,” she said. “So if I need to buy butter or bread, they can write that … and make that an ongoing list that is visible for the whole family to see.”

Create an “eat first” box

It’s easy to lose track of various expiration dates. To stay organized, Vandyke said she places items at the end of their shelf life in a box labeled “eat first” in the refrigerator. Her family then prioritizes finishing those “lonely” ingredients before buying more groceries.

Her household regularly has “mixed vegetable nights,” coming up with creative ways to use all the scraps and leftovers in the eat first box.

“Before you go shopping, I like to see what’s in the fridge, chop up all those things, make it into a curry, a stir fry, or fried rice, something that you can use up all your vegetables before you go out and buy any more,” Vandyke said.

Compost

Composting is the process of recycling organic matter, such as leaves and food scraps, into a fertilizer that can enrich soil and plants.

As alternatives to the traditional compost bin, Vandyke recommends families buy a bokashi bucket, which ferments food scraps into a liquid fertilizer, or create a worm farm, which are odorless and relatively low maintenance.

“There’s different types of benefits for different families, and you just have to find the right one for you,” she said.

However, Vandyke said her favorite method of composting is actually not composting at all.

ShareWaste is a website that connects people who wish to recycle their food scraps with community gardens or neighbors with personal gardens who are already composting.

“What I do is I freeze my compost or put it in the fridge and once a week, I take it to the local community garden,” Vandyke said. “That way, I don’t have to upkeep anything because I have a small home. But this allows me to prevent waste in the long run.”

Engage kids from an early age

By engaging children in zero-waste living, Vandyke said parents can cultivate environmentally conscious habits and an appreciation of natural resources from a young age.

For example, cooking meals with children is an opportunity to educate them on their food sources so they value the ingredients and don’t waste them.

“You have to know that the rice that you make, or the broccoli that you have, all the fruit and vegetables that you have, you have to know where it comes from,” Vandyke said. “It just doesn’t come from the supermarket, it comes from a farm, it comes from a lot of resources to grow and make that food.”

Vandyke said she also raids her household’s recycling bins for cardboard boxes and glass jars that her children can then upcycle into jewelry boxes and other practical arts and crafts.

She also encourages parents to regularly bring their children outdoors to experience their natural environment and show them “what you’re fighting for.”

“The children appreciate nature,” she said, and by taking them outdoors, it makes the concept of conservation “really tangible to them.”

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.