Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. Information from the Department of Education on PSLF can be found here: https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/public-service.

There is no income cap for those who can benefit from PSLF.

PSLF is independent from other federal or state loan forgiveness programs. However, months that count toward forgiveness on the income-driven repayment plans will count toward PSLF forgiveness as long as the borrower has qualifying employment in public service. Please note that credit toward the federal Teacher Loan Forgiveness program for federal student loans cannot also be counted toward PSLF. For more information on other federal forgiveness programs, visit this page.

In general, PSLF counts time toward forgiveness on a loan by loan basis. In other words, each loan must have 10 years’ worth of qualifying work and payments before it will be forgiven.

“ECF” stands for Employment Certification Form. In the past few years, the Department of Education changed the name of this form to “PSLF Form.” This form is the form borrowers must use to document their progress toward PSLF with the federal government. Borrowers must have their public service employers sign the form in order to have qualifying monthly payments count toward PSLF.

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program is a permanent program. However, the limited PSLF waiver (which allowed borrowers to receive past credit for previously ineligible loan payments) ended October 31, 2022.

You do not need to currently have 120 qualifying payments in order to submit paperwork for PSLF. If you have fewer than 120 credits, you can still submit PSLF forms for previous and current qualifying work. Once your form is processed, your account will reflect the number of credits you have accrued. However you will not receive any loan cancellation until you have 120 credits. It is recommended that borrowers submit the PSLF form every year to help them track their progress toward debt forgiveness.

The limited PSLF waiver was issued by the U.S. Department of Education on October 6, 2021, and expired on October 31, 2022, and waived certain requirements of the PSLF program and allowed borrowers to receive retroactive credit for past payments that were previously ineligible. Although this opportunity is over, similar benefits are available through the IDR Account Adjustment, described below.

Time spent in public service making qualifying payments does not need to be consecutive in order to count for Public Service Loan Forgiveness. If one leaves public service and returns, the credit count will pick up where it left off until 120 credits are reached.

There is no cap on the amount of debt that can be cancelled under PSLF. As long as borrowers work full time in qualifying public service, have Direct Loans, are in an Income-Driven Repayment plan, and make 120 qualifying payments, the entire balance of the federal student loan will be relieved.

Only loans in the name of the person working in the public service field are eligible for PSLF.

All full time (defined as at least 30 hours a week) public service workers with federal Direct Loans can benefit from PSLF. Public service includes work within federal, state, local and tribal governments, nonprofits with a 501(c)(3) tax status, and certain other nonprofits.

At the federal level, no, loan forgiveness under PSLF is not taxable income. States may treat loan forgiveness differently for state income tax.

In general, your employer will be whichever entity is listed on your paycheck or W-2 tax form. You should ask your Human Resources department to confirm who generally completes PSLF forms.

Yes, if you think you are not getting as much credit toward PSLF as you should, you can appeal the decision letter that you received that has the outcome you want to challenge. The appeals process for PSLF is called “reconsideration.” You can learn more about reconsideration and file a claim here. However, for most PSLF issues other than employer eligibility, you should file a complaint with the Federal Student Aid office.

Borrowers can check their progress toward PSLF on their dashboard at studentaid.gov. There, they can see how many qualifying payments they have made and their certified employment.

Your employer can authorize any official to sign your PSLF form, as long as that official has access to employment and/or service records. Most employers have designated someone to process PSLF forms. You should ask your Human Resources department who can sign your forms.

To complete the paperwork, you can access the PSLF Help Tool available at Studentaid.gov/pslf, which you can use to generate the necessary form. The form will need to be signed by your employer and then sent to the federal government. Borrowers can complete this process electronically using an employer’s email address or print, sign, and send the forms manually. Generally, borrowers need to submit PSLF forms for every qualifying public service employer for which they are seeking credit since October 1, 2007.

First, make sure that all the information on the forms you submitted was accurate and complete. Frequently, forms are denied due to clerical errors like having the wrong EIN number for your employer or not having a “wet” signature, i.e., they have a typed-out electronic signature instead of using a pen. Second, you may need to call your loan servicer to determine the reason why your employment was not certified, e.g., whether your employer does not qualify as a public servicer OR if there was an issue regarding the number of hours you worked. **If you do call your servicer, make sure to take detailed notes of when you called, who you spoke to, and the substance of the conversation. As a result of the IDR Account Adjustment, past payments that did not count may now be qualifying payments. You may need to recertify employment for those past periods to ensure you get credit.

There is a box to check on the PSLF Form that states: “Check this box if you cannot obtain certification from your employer because the organization is closed or because the organization has refused to certify your employment. The Department will follow up to assist you in getting documentation for your employment. Complete Section 3, but do not complete Section 4.” You can check this box if you are having issues acquiring signatures from previous employers. Only use this option if you have tried and cannot contact your employer or they if they are unwilling to sign. The federal government might ask you for additional supporting information.

There is no requirement to certify employment every year, however, we recommend as a best practice to send in a PSLF form documenting your qualifying employment at least once a year. The first time you submit your forms, it is OK if you submit one form for many years with the same employer, or if you submit multiple forms for multiple past employers. We also recommend that any time you change employers to make sure you get a final PSLF form documenting your entire period of employment before you leave. Doing the paperwork annually will help catch any potential problems to resolve as early as possible.

Your employer can electronically sign PSLF forms; there is an option to send your PSLF form directly to your employer from the PSLF Help Tool using their email address. They also can sign the form with either a “wet ink” signature, a digitally drawn signature, or a scanned and pasted hand written signature. Employers should not merely type their name as their signature. **“Wet ink” signatures are signatures where a person uses a pen or seal to sign their name on a physical paper document

If your college or university is a non-profit 501(c)3, then your employment will count for PSLF. Employment at a for-profit college or university does not count.

Yes, so long as both employers independently qualify. If you have more than one qualifying part-time job, you will be considered full-time if you work a combined average of 30 hours per week with both employers.

Working as a PeaceCorps or AmeriCorps volunteer is considered qualifying employment for PSLF. Volunteers may use their Segal Education Award or PeaceCorps transition payment as a lump sum towards PSLF, qualifying up to 12 payments. Under the IDR account adjustment announced in April 2022, PeaceCorps and AmeriCorps volunteers can receive credit for certain time spent in forbearance or deferment. Click here for more information.

If your public charter school is a 501(c)3 organization or if it is run by a federal/state/local/tribal government, then your employment can qualify for PSLF.

To get their debt cancelled, borrowers must work in the public service for the equivalent of ten years while making payments on their loans. This time does not need to be consecutive, and it does not need to be completed with the same employer. There is no requirement for the length of time at any individual position to count for PSLF. In other words, if you have a qualifying job for only a few months, that time can still count.

It depends. The status of your employer is what counts for PSLF. If your employer is a non-profit 501(c)3, a Federal, state, local, or Tribal government or government agency, or a qualifying private non-profit without 501(c)(3) status, then the location of your employment is not relevant. Work for foreign governments does not count.

Employment only qualifies for PSLF if you are directly employed as a W2 employee by a qualifying employer. It is the status of your direct employer—i.e., who issues your paycheck—that controls. If you are directly employed by a for-profit company that has a contract with a government agency or non-profit organization, then your employment does not count. There are certain exceptions made for situations where certain professionals are prevented by state law from being directly employed by certain types of employers, and so must work as a contractor.

No, for-profit employment does not count for PSLF.

Yes, so long as you remain in qualifying employment during that time. The leave time must be provided by your employer or through Family and Medical Leave Act.

Full-time means you meet your employer’s definition of full-time OR you work at least 30 hours per week on average, whichever is greater. Any leave time provided by the employer i.e. parental leave, sick time, vacation, etc, is excluded. Any leave time taken under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is also excluded. If you have more than one qualifying part-time job, you will be considered full-time if you work a combined average of 30 hours per week with both employers.

You must be employed in qualifying public service at the time that you apply for forgiveness (having already accrued 120 credits), but as a result of new rules that took effect July 1, 2023, you do not need to maintain that employment until the time that your loans are actually forgiven.

Any 501(c)3 organization qualifies for PSLF. A non-profit organization that does NOT have 501(c)3 status may qualify, so long as it provides one of the following services: Emergency management Military service: service on behalf of the U.S. armed forces or the National Guard Public safety Law enforcement: crime prevention, control or reduction of crime, or the enforcement of criminal law Public interest law services: legal services provided by an organization that is funded in whole or in part by a local, state, federal, or tribal government Early childhood education including licensed or regulated childcare, Head Start, and state-funded prekindergarten Public service for individuals with disabilities and the elderly Public health including nurses, nurse practitioners, nurses in a clinical setting, and full-time professionals engaged in health care practitioner occupations, health support occupations, and counselors, social workers, and other community and social service specialist occupations as such terms are defined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics Public library services School library or other school-based services

PSLF was created through the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007 and went into effect in October 2007. The law does not authorize credit for employment that pre-dated its passage.

Any month where you were considered a full-time employee at a qualifying employer can count towards PSLF. You will receive credit for the months where you worked full-time.

Yes, past employment can always be certified. You can submit proof of past qualifying employment using the PSLF form at any time.

The Department of Education issued new rules in July 2023 that changed the definition of full time to 30 hours a week. Therefore, if you are not considered full time by your employer but work over 30 hours a week on average you are considered full time for the purposes of PSLF. This has no bearing on whether you are considered full time for other purposes, such as employee benefits.

No. Only time that you worked after October 2007, when PSLF began, and after a particular loan was taken out will count as credit for that loan’s cancellation.

Yes. The program looks at the loan type –e.g., a Direct Loan– not what type of education it was used to finance.

Although borrowers must submit PSLF Forms for any qualifying public service work, borrowers can apply at any point and get credit for past qualifying work and payments, so there is no “missed” chance. Borrowers can file PSLF Forms every year that they have qualifying employment in order to track their progress in real time. The first time you file, you can include multiple forms if you are documenting time with multiple employers, or a single form that covers many years if you have been with a single employer.

Any federal Direct Loans are eligible for PSLF. Often Direct Loans are referred to by other names—such as subsidized or unsubsidized, Stafford, or Grad Plus. You can check your loan type by logging into StudentAid.gov and reviewing the loans on your dashboard. Any loan that includes the word “Direct” is a Direct Loan. For borrowers whose loans are not eligible, mainly borrowers whose FFEL loans are owned by private lenders and whose Perkins loans are owned by their schools, these borrowers can consolidate their loans to make future payments eligible for PSLF. As of July 1, 2024, borrowers who consolidate their loans will receive a weighted average of past qualifying payments made on their loans that will count toward PSLF cancellation.

Starting in July 2023, the Department of Education will allow public service workers pursuing PSLF to “buy back” past months in repayment during which they were not enrolled in a qualifying payment plan or were in a forbearance or deferment. This option is limited to borrowers for whom these additional months, once bought back, will result in them reaching 120 payments and qualifying for debt cancellation. Essentially, to buy back months, borrowers must make an additional payment today in the same amount as they would have had to pay in the past for it to qualify for PSLF. You can learn more about the Buy Back Program here: https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/public-service/public-service-loan-forgiveness-buyback Note: once run, the IDR Account Adjustment will provide a similar result—getting credit for past time that was ineligible—and does not require a payment. Borrowers should wait until the IDR Account Adjustment is run and their accounts are updated before using the Buy Back Program.

You can use the Loan Simulator tool at studentaid.gov to get a ballpark idea of what your payment might be under each plan. When you log in towww.studentaid.gov, you can begin the process of enrolling in an income-driven repayment plan and see which ones you are eligible for and what your monthly bill would be under each. If you’re still unsure, there is always an option on the application that says “place me in the repayment plan with the lowest monthly payment.”

No, regardless of how your payments are applied, as long as you’re in repayment that time will count towards the limited PSLF waiver. Even under the regular PSLF rules, it is OK if your payments do not cover your interest as long as you are making the full payment required on your monthly statement, as calculated by your IDR or 10-year standard repayment plan.

Under the new rules that went into effect on July 1, 2023, some, but not all, deferment and forbearance time counts towards PSLF. Read more here: https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/public-service#qualifying-payments

No. Any payments you make while in default will unfortunately not count toward your 120 PSLF payments.

Each income-driven repayment plan is different and calculates income differently. The income calculated will also depend on whether or not you file your taxes jointly or separately from your spouse.

The Department of Education offers IDR plans as the affordable repayment plan, because payments are based in part on income, not on loan balance. However, for many borrowers, IDR is not affordable. Unfortunately there are few additional options. For some borrowers, the standard repayment may offer lower monthly payments than an IDR plan. You may also explore a graduated or extended repayment plan, which can lower monthly payments, however these plans generally do not qualify for PSLF.

The PSLF rules were revised on July 1, 2023, to allow borrowers to get credit for monthly payments that were made in installments. Additionally, the IDR Account Adjustment, which will take effect in the Fall of 2024, will give credit for any past time in repayment status, even if you did not make full and on-time payments.

There is no income cap for income-driven repayment plans, but Income-Based Repayment and Pay As You Earn use a debt-to-income ratio called “partial financial hardship.” That means if you are a high-earner with only a small amount of student debt, you won’t be able to enroll into one of these IDR plans.

Yes, but only in increments of up to 12 months. It is not possible to qualify for PSLF in fewer than 10 years.

In general, if you return to school for at least half time, your loans will be put into an in-school deferment. Time in in-school deferment does not generally count for PSLF. If you want to continue to make payments toward PSLF while in school, contact your servicer and ask to keep your loans in repayment status. Also, PSLF requires full-time employment. If you are returning to school and want to make payments toward PSLF, those payments will only count if you are still working full time while in school.

Under the PSLF program, you must be enrolled in either an income-driven repayment plan or the Standard 10-year Repayment plan. The payment plans that fall under income-driven repayment are: Income-Based Repayment (IBR), Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR), Paye As You Earn (PAYE), and Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE). The SAVE Plan is replacing the Revised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE) plan. Currently, ongoing litigation has limited the repayment options for many borrowers. Check out our Lawsuits page for more information.

Direct Joint Consolidation Loan borrowers will automatically receive the one-time IDR account adjustment. You will also receive credit for PSLF based on the adjustment if you met all other PSLF requirements as well. Direct Loan borrowers should complete their PSLF applications and do not have to wait for their loans to be separated to begin this process. Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Joint Consolidation borrowers will need to first separate their loans and receive new Direct Consolidation Loans. Once you receive your new loan, you and the co-borrower will both have the IDR account adjustment retroactively applied to your loans. This is true regardless of when the Department separates your loans, as the Department has exempted Joint Consolidation Loan borrowers from the deadlines that other borrowers must meet as the Department works to implement the new law. If you believe you are eligible for PSLF, you will need to complete a PSLF application after your loan has been separated and you have received a new Direct Consolidation Loan. In addition to the standard PSLF, the Department has said that it is keeping a record of Joint Consolidation Loan borrowers who expressed interest in being reviewed under the PSLF Waiver prior to Oct. 31, 2022. If you are one of the borrowers who contacted the Department about this, it should reach out to you directly to provide next steps.

Very few borrowers have Joint Consolidation Loans. Between 1992 and July 1, 2006, the law allowed married borrowers to combine their individual federal student loans into a single joint Direct Consolidation Loan or joint Federal Consolidation Loan. These loans included terms that prevented them from being able to be separated, even in the case of divorce. In 2006, a law was passed to end this practice. If you consolidated your loan with your spouse during that time period, it should appear as a “Direct Joint Consolidation Loan” or “FFEL Joint Consolidation Loan” on your monthly bill or account.

If you have a Direct Joint Consolidation Loans, you can qualify for PSLF and have access to IDR plans without separating your loan. However, for the entire amount to be forgiven, both spouses must have qualifying employment. If only one spouse works in public service, only the portion of the loan attributable to that spouse’s original loan will be forgiven. In that case, both spouses will remain liable for the remainder of the loan. Additionally, each spouse borrower must accrue 120 qualifying payments independently of each other. On October 11, 2022, the President signed the "Joint Consolidation Loan Separation Act," to permit borrowers to separate joint consolidation loans. The Department of Education is working on implementing these changes and provides updates on their Joint Consolidation Loan Separation News page. Once the Joint Consolidation Loan Separation Act is implemented, Direct Joint Consolidation Loan borrowers will be able to separate their loans and pursue PSLF for each loan individually. If you have a Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Joint Consolidation Loan, you will first need to separate your loan after the Department of Education has finalized its process for doing so, then apply for PSLF. While the Department works to complete this process, they have encouraged FFEL lenders to provide forbearances on these loans.

On October 11, 2022, the President signed the “Joint Consolidation Loan Separation Act,” to permit borrowers to separate joint consolidation loans. The Department of Education began to allow spousal consolidation borrowers to apply to have their loans separated in October 2024 by submitting this paper application to their student loan servicer. This process has just begun and no loans have officially been separated yet, so it is not clear if additional steps are needed to reflect any PSLF credits. For more information about the Department’s treatment of spousal loans see here: https://studentaid.gov/announcements-events/joint-consolidation-loans

Unfortunately not at this time. PSLF is only available to federal student loan borrowers with Direct Loans; if you have a privately-held FFEL Loan or a Perkins Loan (usually held by your university), you can consolidate those into Direct Consolidation Loans.

Unfortunately not. The PSLF Program only applies to federal student loans.

Yes. Through the IDR account adjustment, Parent PLUS Loan borrowers will automatically receive IDR credits on their account for past time in repayment, no matter what plan they were enrolled in, and for certain periods of deferment and forbearance. In December 2022, the Department of Education clarified that these adjusted credits will count towards PSLF.

Yes, Parent PLUS Loans are an eligible loan type for PSLF. However, they do not qualify for the IDR plans that are generally required to accrue qualifying payments toward PSLF. A Parent PLUS Loan borrower can consolidate their loan, and the new Direct Consolidation Loan will have access to the Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR) plan, a type of IDR plan, which will qualify for PSLF.

Refunds only apply for payments (in excess of 120 payments) that were paid on a Direct Loan. This is true for both Direct Loans and FFEL Program loans that are consolidated into a Direct Consolidation Loan. Payments are returned as they were received (e.g., electronic payment or check). They are typically processed in one to two weeks after forgiveness but it may take longer to get your refund, depending on processing times in other parts of the government. If a borrower made over 120 payments on a FFELP loan, no refund is issued.

No, as of Aug. 28, 2023, the Department of Education has stopped accepting requests for refunds on payments made during the payment pause.

If you have already received forgiveness or paid off your loans, you are not eligible for a refund of prior payments.

Until June 2006, married federal student loan borrowers could consolidate their loans into a single Spousal or Joint Consolidation Loan. These loans included terms that prevented them from being able to be separated, even in the case of divorce. On October 11, 2022, the President signed the "Joint Consolidation Loan Separation Act," to permit borrowers to separate joint consolidation loans. Since this law is new, it will take some time for the Department of Education to implement changes for borrowers to request separation of their joint consolidation loan into individual consolidation loans. To access PSLF, ED has implemented a separate process. To find out more about this process, see: studentaid.gov. Without separating the loans, Joint Direct Consolidation loans can qualify for PSLF and have access to IDR plans. However, for the entire amount to be forgiven, both spouses must have qualifying employment. If only one spouse works in public service, only the portion of the loan attributable to that spouse’s original loan will be forgiven. In that case, both spouses will remain liable for the remainder of the loan. Additionally, each spouse borrower must accrue 120 qualifying payments independently of each other; the payments will not be added up between the two spouses.

Borrowers can consolidate for the purposes of PSLF at any time. The application can be completed online at StudentAid.gov in a matter of minutes. However, if you have any Federal loan other than a Direct loan you cannot accrue credit toward PSLF until you consolidate your loans. The Limited PSLF Waiver and IDR Account Adjustment were exceptions to this rule.

As of July 1, 2023, borrowers are able to keep a weighted average of payments made on Direct loans when they consolidate. For more information on how this works, see here: https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/public-service.

No. The Department of Education has your loans’ repayment history. However, it is still a good idea to keep your own records in case there is ever an issue.

If you have any loans that are not Direct Loans—e.g., a Federal Family Education Loan or Perkins Loan—you will need to consolidate those loans for them to be included in the PSLF program. You can check your loan type by logging into StudentAid.gov and reviewing the loans on your dashboard. Any loan that includes the word “Direct” is a Direct Loan. Any other loan will need to be consolidated.

Both terms refer to the process of taking out a new loan to pay off an existing loan. Consolidation, however, is when a borrower takes out a new federal student loan to pay off their existing federal student loan(s). When you consolidate, your new federal student loan will have access to the consumer protections and repayment options available under federal law, including PSLF. Refinancing is when a borrower takes out a private loan to pay off their existing federal and/or private student loans. When you refinance, your new loan will not have access to any of the repayment or forgiveness options available to federal student loan borrowers. In short, if you refinance with a private lender, you will not have access to PSLF. There is no way to reverse the process once you have privately refinanced.

The surest way to qualify your payments for PSLF is to enroll in an IDR plan. If you have not done so, you should consider doing this soon. You can do this separately and later than the consolidation application. However, we recommend you ensure you are in a qualifying repayment plan for any payments you make. This includes the standard 10-year repayment plan or any of the income-driven repayment plans (IBR, ICR, PAYE, or REPAYE/SAVE).

If you consolidate your loans before December 31, 2023, all time on your original and prior consolidation loan will be reviewed for credit toward both IDR and PSLF.

In general, consolidating should not have a negative effect—but in some cases, it could have a minor temporary negative effect. First, federal student loans generally don’t require a credit check, so there should not be a credit report pull that affects your credit. In fact, consolidating may actually have a positive effect on your credit score since you will be reducing the number of open credit lines on your credit report and your old loans will be shown as “paid in full.” This can increase your score but not decrease it. However, you will also be adding a new, younger credit line. If you don’t have other forms of open credit, this will mean that now your only credit line is new. This could slightly lower your credit score temporarily, until that new credit line ages.

Your consolidation loan will be a single loan that repays and replaces multiple older loans. (Some borrowers may consolidate a single loan, in which case they will just have one loan replacing another.) If you are consolidating a combination of subsidized and unsubsidized loans, your consolidation process may result in one consolidation loan for each group of loans, but practically speaking your new loan(s) will streamline payments from multiple older loans.

You should file a complaint with the Federal Student Aid office. We also recommend submitting a PSLF Reconsideration Form which can be found here.

If you think you are not getting as much credit toward PSLF as you should, you can appeal the decision letter that you received that has the outcome you want to challenge. The appeals process for PSLF is called “reconsideration.” You can learn more about reconsideration and file a claim here. However, for most PSLF issues other than employer eligibility, you should file a complaint with the Federal Student Aid office.

If you think you are not getting as much credit toward PSLF as you should, you can appeal the decision letter that you received that has the outcome you want to challenge. The appeals process for PSLF is called “reconsideration.” You can learn more about reconsideration and file a claim here. However, for most PSLF issues other than employer eligibility, you should file a complaint with the Federal Student Aid office.

There is no set timeframe for processing PSLF applications. The federal government is reviewing applications on a rolling basis.

Only your federal student loans will be listed on StudentAid.gov. None of your private loans will be available there.

If you log in to StudentAid.gov and go to your student aid dashboard, you can access a detailed loan history for each of your loans by clicking on “View Details” and then “Download My Aid Data.”

Some borrowers may qualify to receive financial counseling or legal assistance from local community or legal services organizations. However, it can be hard to find high-quality expertise about the student loan system. Borrowers should be very wary of companies that contact them about their loans or that charge for their services. Borrowers should begin by reviewing www.StudentAid.gov, and can contact their servicer with questions.

No, as of August 28, 2023, the Department of Education has stopped accepting requests for refunds on payments made during the payment pause.

The payment pause lasted from March 13, 2020, until August 30, 2023. Each paused month will count as a qualifying “payment” toward PSLF, even though no payment was due. For these months to count as credit toward PSLF, however, you must still have qualifying employment and qualifying loan type (i.e., a Direct Loan). Please note that technically the payment pause is an “administrative forbearance.” You may see in written materials about PSLF that forbearance periods do not count toward PSLF. This is generally true, but the payment pause is an exception.

You should file a complaint with the Federal Student Aid office.

You should file a complaint with the Federal Student Aid office, and include details of what your servicer told you, and whether you would have benefited from being in an IDR plan and/or having your months count toward PSLF.

You should file a complaint with the Federal Student Aid office and with the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

You should never have to pay for help with your student loan. None of the programs available to federal student loan borrowers, including PSLF, have any cost associated with them. However, some companies charge consumers to help you with your student loan accounts. Borrowers can always choose to pay a company, instead of doing it for free themselves, the way a consumer may pay a tax preparer instead of filing their taxes themselves. However, you should be on the lookout for scams. Anyone offering “new loan forgiveness” plans or who contacts you directly and who claims to be from the government may be a scammer. Do not give payment information to anyone before exploring all of your options. Your first stop for free loan assistance should be to explore your options on StudentAid.gov and then to call your student loan servicer to talk about what might be best for you.

The IDR Account Adjustment is a one time audit of all federal student loan accounts to determine how much time borrowers have been in repayment and how close they are to achieving debt cancellation through the Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) Plans. Under the IDR plans, borrowers are able to have their debt cancelled after 20 or 25 years in repayment depending on the plan they are enrolled in. The Department of Education will be counting any time spent in repayment and some forbearances and deferment periods in this audit. Read more about the time that counts toward the IDR Account Adjustment here.

For many borrowers, the IDR Account Adjustment will be automatic. However, if a borrower has federal loans that are not currently held by the Department of Education, they will need to consolidate before April 30, 2024 in order to participate in the IDR Account Adjustment. You can check studentaid.gov to determine if your loans are held by the Department of Education, as they will list the Department on the loan-level details about each loan. Department-held loans are the same loans that have received the payment pause. Borrowers seeking Public Service Loan Forgiveness should confirm that they have a Direct Loan, and if they do not have a Direct Loan, including Direct Consolidation Loans, they can consolidate by April 30, 2024, to retain credit for their past public service work and qualify for PSLF in the future.

No. Borrowers who have not previously been enrolled in income driven repayment plans are able to receive credit through the IDR Account Adjustment, meaning that they can receive retroactive credit for past time in repayment toward cancellation under the IDR plans. However, if borrowers want to continue receiving credit toward IDR cancellation after the IDR Account Adjustment takes place they will need to enroll in an IDR plan moving forward, including the annual recertifications required by the IDR program.

The Department of Education has begun performing the audit on accounts that have been in repayment the longest, over 20 or 25 years, and for those who have been working in the public service for over ten years. All other accounts will see their adjustment take place in 2024.

You can enroll in an IDR plan by logging in at studentaid.gov or by calling your servicer to request one. To see which option might be most affordable for you, log in to studentaid.gov and use the repayment calculator tool to review your options.

If you would like your account reviewed to ensure that you have received all possible credit for forbearances and/or deferments you’ve experienced, you can submit a complaint to the FSA Ombudsman to have your account reviewed and specifically mention the times in deferment and/or deferment that you would like to have counted and whether or not your servicer told you that time in those deferments and/or forbearances would count towards the IDR and/or PSLF programs.

Yes! Any credit you receive toward the IDR Account Adjustment will also count toward PSLF credit, provided you were employed by an eligible public service entity during the months for which you received credit in the IDR Account Adjustment. If you do not have a Direct Loan, you will also need to consolidate your loan by April 30, 2024. If the Account Adjustment gives you 120 qualifying payments and if you are still employed in public service, your loan will be cancelled. If you do not have 120 qualifying payments yet, you can continue to accrue payments as long as you maintain public service employment and make payments in a qualifying payment plan. If you have 120 qualifying payments but are not currently employed in public service, you can qualify for debt cancellation if you resume working full-time for a public service employer. Make sure you have certified any qualifying employment with the Department of Education–it cannot give you credit for work that it doesn’t know you performed!