Around nine million people received emails mistakenly telling them their student loans had been forgiven.
The group of borrowers who received the emails from the Department of Education have now started to receive new messages clarifying the situation, according to CNN.
The emails went out last month to people who had applied for student loan forgiveness under President Joe Biden’s debt relief programme.
The White House’s programme is currently blocked by federal courts and, although the applications had been received, none have yet been approved or rejected.
While the error was made in the subject line of the email, the body of it, which confirmed receipt of the borrower’s application, was correct.
“Due to a vendor error, you recently received an email with a subject line indicating your application for the one-time Student Loan Debt Relief Plan had been approved. The subject line was inaccurate,” read an email sent on Tuesday and obtained by the network.
Human error at outside vendor Accenture Federal Services resulted in the original incorrect email being sent out, says CNN.
The Department of Education said in a statement that “communicating clearly and accurately with borrowers is a top priority” and that it is in contact with the vendor.
The US Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments about the Biden administration’s programme in February with a decision expected by June.
The White House wants to give millions of borrowers up to $10,000 in loan forgiveness, while those who received a Pell grant would get up to $20,000 in relief.
