Student borrowers will have two additional options in December after the president Joe Biden reopened two paths to debt cancellationaccording to Forbes Friday.

While Biden’s Savings on Value Education (SAVE) Plan is in a state of uncertainty facing legal challenges, two other income-driven repayment plans will be open next month to borrowers who want to progress toward debt relief or even full loan forgiveness.

Although the legality of SAVE remains uncertain, it has reduced monthly payments and eliminated high interest for millions of borrowers. It also offered full student loan forgiveness after 10 to 25 years of payments. But when SAVE was implemented, it phased out new enrollments in the old income-based repayment plans, Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) and Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR).

This is no longer the case because with SAVE being threatened, Biden’s Department of Education (DOE) will once again allow borrowers to enroll in both plans.

“The PAYE and ICR plans existed before SAVE was introduced under the Biden administration, but were ultimately combined under SAVE,” said Alex Beene, a professor of financial literacy at the University of Tennessee at Martin. News week.

He added, “With the SAVE plan currently on hold as it continues to work its way through the court system, the administration is considering reintroducing these old plans in order to help students who would qualify for them.”

Under the Biden administration, the DOE has provided $175 billion in student loan forgiveness to approximately 5 million people.

News week contacted the Department of Education for comment via email.

SAVE was initially suspended by the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in August, putting millions of borrowers into forbearance. This meant they had no payments due and no interest being generated, but they also couldn’t work toward repaying their loans or get closer to having their student loans forgiven.

Under the rules at the time, borrowers could wait to see what happened with SAVE or choose the only other income-driven repayment plan, the Income-Based Repayment (IBR) plan.

The IBR also takes into account borrowers’ income and family size and allows some to obtain debt forgiveness after 20 or 25 years. However, this ends up costing borrowers more and has fewer interest benefits.

Now that PAYE and ICR are available, borrowers can start working towards relief again over a 20-25 year time frame.

“For borrowers eligible for PAYE but not IBR for new borrowers, this is an important development and an opportunity to potentially reduce their monthly bill and start moving toward forgiveness,” Michael Lux , lawyer and founder of Student Loan Sherpa, says News week.

Those with a loan can start taking advantage of the two new options in 30 days, starting in mid-December.

“As long-term interest rates remain high, borrowers making only minimum payments are finding it increasingly difficult to stay afloat,” said Kevin Thompson, financial expert and founder and CEO of 9i Capital Group. News week. “Reopening these programs helps address inequities in the student loan system while providing much-needed relief.”

While Beene said the two new options are good news for borrowers, it’s also likely the programs will be short-lived.

“The Trump administration has opposed most efforts to implement similar programs. The reintroduction will provide relief to borrowers, but it remains to be seen how long this relief will last,” he added. .

President-elect Donald Trump made it clear that he was against Biden’s attempts to cancel student loans over the years.

During his debate against the vice president Kamala Harris in September, Trump attacked Biden and Harris for failing to keep their promise to cancel student loans. He called the administration’s initial plan for widespread student debt forgiveness a “total disaster” and said it would have been “unfair” to the millions of Americans who actually paid off their loans.

During Trump’s first term, his administration pushed for monthly payments to increase by 10 to 12.5 percent of borrowers’ discretionary income and also wanted to merge all income-based repayment plans into one simplified option.

With Trump returning to office, it is likely that his administration will push to dismantle the SAVE plan and potentially legally challenge the remaining pardon plans in place, Michael Ryan, financial expert and founder of michaelryanmoney.com, previously said. News week.