Virtually all PPP loans are being forgiven — despite concerns about fraud, undeserving recipients. And all you need is a simple one-page form to get relief

Almost all the PPP loans — 90% — have already been completely or partially forgiven, according to NPR analysis of data from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).

And now there’s a simpler way to get forgiveness, in case you’re one of the few who hasn’t applied for it yet.

Loans are being forgiven

The loans were given out as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

The intention of the program, which ended in May 2021, was to save jobs and businesses. While just how many jobs and businesses were saved has been called into question, a working paper by Harvard Business School estimates the PPP led to a 14% to 30% increase in the chances of a business surviving the pandemic.

The amount that was loaned varied from a few thousand dollars into the millions, but the overall average loan size was $48,000, according to the SBA.

The threshold for having your loan forgiven is pretty simple. On its website, the SBA says it will forgive loans if the funds were used for payroll costs, business mortgage interest payments, rent or utilities.

And though the majority of loans have been forgiven, there are about a million still outstanding.

The program came with plenty of fraud

PPP loans were easy to get, easy to forgive and easy to manipulate.

They were so easy to get — partially due to the scale of the program and the speed at which the SBA worked to get the money out — that many fraudulent loan applicants slipped through the cracks.