U.S. President Barack Obama will expand a program that helps students with federal loans manage their debts.

According to Matt Lehrich, a White House spokesperson, the president will expand the Pay As You Earn, an alternative repayment program of the Department of Education, that puts monthly cap payments.

Like Us on Facebook

Lehrich estimates an additional 5 million student borrowers could qualify under the expanded program and applications will be available beginning December 2015.

President Obama is expected to sign the relief via an executive order. Some of the notable criteria of the executive order include 10 percent monthly caps of a student borrower's discretionary income and debt forgiveness for 20 years of on-time debt payments.

Student loan borrowers have been struggling for years just to pay their debts back to the federal government. A majority of them after graduation still find it difficult to repay the loans even if they are already employed.

The president's alternative payment programs are specifically designed to address the struggles borrowers face to repay their loans. Those who manage to pay on-time or those who work in the public sector are covered in forgiveness programs.

Teachers can expect to have their balance cancelled if they have been in the teaching profession after ten years. Borrowers coming from a low-income bracket can also have their remaining balance cancelled if they had been paying on time during the last 20 or 25 years.

For those who don't qualify for the program's debt amnesty, their monthly payments can still be reduced provided they use a repayment program. In this case, their payment scheme will be spread out over long periods subject to additional interests.

However, those who borrowed from private institutions instead of the government are not covered by the Pay As You Earn program and the income-based repayment scheme.

Lehrich said the president will support the proposal by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) that would allow students to refinance their loans. Warren's proposal intends to extend the current rates for new borrowers to students with outstanding loans charged with higher rates.

"While Congress decides what it's going to do, I will keep doing whatever I can without Congress to help responsible young people pay off their loans," Obama said on Saturday during his weekly address.

Tagsstudent loan forgiveness, Pay As You Earn, alternative payment programs, U.S. President Barack Obama