$8.1B in student loan relief has been approved under revamped program: Do you qualify?
by Addy Bink, Nexstar Media Wire - 06/26/22 11:51 AM ET
(NEXSTAR) – Roughly 145,000 federal student loan borrowers have received $8.1 billion in relief thanks to changes to a federal loan forgiveness program, the latest data from the Education Department shows.
The Wall Street Journal reports that $8.1 billion in debt relief has been approved since October when the Education Department rolled out a number of changes to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, or PSLF, was created in 2007 with the intention of helping employees with nonprofit and government agencies have their student loans forgiven after ten years of payments (120 total payments). The overall approval rate among applicants has been low – just 1 in 5 of the 1.3 million borrowers pursuing debt discharge through PSLF were on track to see relief by 2026, according to a September 2021 report from The Washington Post.
In 2021, the U.S. Department of Education announced a change that temporarily waives specific PSLF requirements to grant borrowers credit toward loan cancellation regardless of their federal loan type or if they had been enrolled in a specific payment plan. This waiver is currently set to expire after October 31, 2022.
A recent report from the Student Borrower Protection Center found over nine million public service workers likely qualify for debt cancellation through the PSLF program, but have yet to file the paperwork to start the process. California, Texas, Florida, and New York have the most public service workers with student loan debt, according to SBPC.
PSLF qualifications
As explained above, PSLF is intended to give eligible public service employees debt forgiveness after a set number of payments are made.
Eligible borrowers must:
Be employed by a U.S. federal, state, local, or tribal government or not-for-profit organization (federal service includes U.S. military service)
Work full-time for that agency or organization
Have Direct Loans (or consolidate other federal student loans into a Direct Loan)
Make 120 qualifying payments
Under the current PSLF waiver, eligible borrowers can receive credit for payments made on other loan types, under any payment plan, before consolidation, or after the due date. Those who received Teacher Loan Forgiveness can apply the period of service that led to their eligibility toward PSLF, if they can certify PSLF employment for that period.
more
https://thehill.com/homenews/nexstar_media_wire/3537431-8-1b-in-student-loan-relief-has-been-approved-under-revamped-program-do-you-qualify/
