Around 9 million borrowers who had student loans last month received an email with the wrong subject for the email. It was an informational email, and it was about the applications being received, not about their application being approved. A contractor supporting the Department of Education is now working on sending the accurate and corrected subject line to the borrowers.
This happened between November 22nd and November 23rd, when these emails were sent with a positive subject line that wasn’t accurate in the least bit[1]. The subject line disclosed approval, but that wasn’t the case. Instead, it was about the fact that they had the applications received and were meant to only have the subject line read that it was simply an update on the debt relief of the student loans.
The contractor who made the email communication error is called Accenture Federal Services (AFS). Past the subject, the rest of the content was surprisingly accurate and gave the necessary update to borrowers about the relief being tied up in legal battles and in court. AFS will now send out corrected emails for the department they were meant to support.
Head of Corporate Communications, Stacy Jones, who is also a long-term Managing Director for Accenture, shows “remorse about sending the incorrect email to such a large volume of applicants with the wrong subject line caused by human error.”
“The incorrect electronic communication was sent between November 22nd and November 23rd, as part of our support services for the Department of Education,” she said. “Going forward AFS will put additional levels of quality control and ensure accuracy going forward in this project”
On top of this, a Department of Education rep made a comment that “a critical priority is to have proper and transparent communications with student-loan debt relief candidates.”
In addition, that same rep also said, “We have constant communication with Accenture and their respective department while monitoring their actions they are taking to rectify the situation”.
So far, 26 million applications have already been submitted. Yet starting in October, the chance to submit has closed because of the current legal battles being fought in two different jurisdictions.
First, a Judge hailed from Texas stated that student loan debt cancellation was an illegal move[2]. Then, a few days later, a pause came from the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals on the ability to submit any more applications for the time being[3].
The Department of Justice has already asked for an intervention from the Supreme Court, but they are still discussing their stance on the current lawsuit from Texas[4]. It will, however, start to hear the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals arguments starting in 2023, as early as February[5]. Then, of course, there’s also the possibility that the Supreme Court may treat the two cases as similar and group them, hopefully by the first quarter of next year.
Even with these lawsuits, there has been extended relief coming in the form of an extension for student loan payments through June 30th[6]. If the lawsuits finish sooner, the relief will end sooner. The current administration has high levels of confidence in regard to when the day in court happens; it will be a win by using the HEROES act of 2003 as the basis for this one-time student debt relief that can help tens of millions of borrowers.
“This program will help over 40 million eligible Americans who are currently struggling under this financial burden, combined with the effects the pandemic has had on their financial stability and the overall economy,” stated Miguel Cardona, who is the Education Secretary who went on to say similar comments on Twitter[7]. “These are Americans who wanted to achieve the Dream that is supported with getting a higher education. When SCOTUS hears the overall case, I cannot wait for it to happen.”
