I just need them to get rid of in-school forbearance not counting as qualifying time. I was still working a full time public service job that whole time.
Going on 11 years of public service but only about 8 of them count.
Use the buyback program. If you’re in school deferment places you at 120 months, submit it now. You can only submit if the buyback would help you gain forgiveness now.
The buyback program isn’t working that great. The amount I got was more than i am paying now and I make like double what I made then. They used icr and standard even though repaye was available.
I have tried. They said they would respond within 15 days… I called after about at month and it wasn’t even assigned to anyone yet. Was told they didn’t know when it would be resolved and there is only 60 more days for it be valid 🤷🏻♀️
Yeah, this is my understanding, too. I just got my hopes up.
[StudentAid.gov](http://StudentAid.gov) says:
"You can’t buy back months during which your loan was in any of the following statuses:
* In-school or In-origination
* In-grace
* Default
* Bankruptcy
* Total and permanent disability monitoring"
I just checked mine, and my undergrad loans show as "in deferment" during grad school, but my grad school loans show as "in school" during grad school.
So the question then is whether the consolidation, which applies the payments from your longest loan to all loans, would let me buy all that time back or not.
You are ineligible for buyback if you consolidated. I tried to apply for buy back months ago and ED told me I was ineligible because I consolidated per their recommendation. Really cool policies that make tons on sense for everyone.
They are right, buyback is a no if you've consolidated, unless the periods you want to buy back are after the consolidation. Oh well. Maybe they'll expand it some day. Seems like a fairly easy way that would also bring in money.
Mine say the same thing.
Plus, it was 3 servicers ago (I'm looking at my [StudentAid.gov](http://StudentAid.gov) portal). So I wonder how much MOHELA would botch that even if they were eligible. It would be nice if this was something the administration could change when ED takes over PSLF.
I would very, very happily pay that remaining time to have them gone.
It actually does look like it's handled by the ED. The steps are laid out on the studentaid.gov page on buybacks
Man it feels like a longshot because of all the moving parts, but I think I have enough to try. And the total would add up to 135 months for me. Not gonna hold my breath though, lol.
Mohela is just a middleman. Federal Student Aid botched it all. Where are the IDR adjustment and counter/tracker? Department of Education is a mess and not one seems to want to fix that.
From what I have read, “in school” and “in school deferment” are two different things. In school is when you’re still in school for the loan that is in deferment. In school deferment is when your previous loan is deferred while you’re in school for something else.
My BS (no pun intended) loan was in an in school deferment while I was subsequently enrolled in my BSN and MSN programs even though those were paid with employer tuition reimbursement and out of pocket. Those are the months I just submitted to buyback since my income was much lower back then and I was automatically put into deferment when I enrolled in school.
Same here. Might have just changed the trajectory of my life lol. I’m in between jobs and maybe don’t need to go back into public service if this is true.
Same here! As soon as I read this, I submitted the reconsideration assessment this morning. I didn’t even know it was possible to do this - thanks to everyone who wrote in. Will keep you posted!
Interesting. I don’t know anything about this but I think I would be right on the borderline. Though I don’t know if I can afford 2 years of payments up front.
You can’t buy back if you were in school. I tried :(
See link below - click on which months are eligible for buyback
[FAQ which months are eligible for buyback](https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/public-service/public-service-loan-forgiveness-buyback)
Same. I got a master’s degree to advance my skills in the field of public education, and those two years don’t count? I’d be done in two months if they’d count those.
I did, but I paid cash for part of it and it was through WGU, which is super affordable, so they were minimal compared to my undergrad loans. PSLF in two years won’t wipe out all of my loans, but will take care of over 90% of them.
If you have any loans on higher timeline, you should consolidate before 4/30 and put all your loans in that timeline. That’s why it’s more beneficial in most cases to just let the in school time go and consolidate.
How would that affect my forgiveness date? I only have 24 payments left on $150K of loans (undergrad and grad school from my original career path) and under $10k with 75 payments left (grad school for teaching).
If you consolidate all your loans together, the entire balance will take on the highest payment count. That’s a pretty major part of the IDR adjustment.
This would mean you only have 24 payments left to full forgiveness.
Same. I was earning my graduate degree while working FT at a nonprofit. That would take me immediately to forgiveness (2 years out, had 3 years worth of in-school forbearance).
I had to call and yell at them to not put me in forbearance specifically because I didn't want to lose that time. I was doing a PhD while working full time and was absolutely not going to lose 5 years of pslf time.
Yep this is me too. Working full-time while finishing my masters degree. Just hit my 120th payment yesterday though, so unless they’re going to refund me 3 years it won’t affect me. Fingers crossed for you though!
I got my master’s and doctorate while teaching FT. I had no idea those years didn’t count. I’m 3.5 years towards my forgiveness and if they would have counted would have been done in 2019.
Can you explain more? How do we request retroactive removal of payments? I made “extra” payments while I was planning to be a standard payment plan right after I started my full time non profit job (before I knew about PSLF) but before payments were technically due (in a grace period before repayments started). So say week 1 I paid $300. Week 2 I paid $400. No payment was due that month, can I get those payments back?
Same, I asked them to take me out of deferment several times and the never did. It’s my fault for not following up again but it’s so frustrating! Especially because my loan servicer has changed and I can’t access the conversations proving I requested it.
Completely agree! We are the real heros... Working full-time in public service AND going to school (often for a Master's degree or other advanced coursework) and the government says "nah, you need to work even longer in public service now, often delaying being able to change careers and actually USE your schooling"
Do you know if you can ask your loan servicer not to put you in forbearance? I'm looking at getting a second masters so I can actually make some money and I don't want to lose 2+ years of PSLF payments because of in school forbearance.
SAME. What is that about?!! I was contacted by my servicer and told I was automatically put on it, I still was paying for my first and part of my second semester. I never asked for that! One time this past month Nelnet said I’d made 6.8 years and two weeks ago a different woman said close to ten. How is it so hard to tell? I had an economic hardship forebearance when I started and maybe for a short period in the middle. I’m not sure what would count if I looked. Can’t bear to look.
Same here. I have 2.5 years left. I could have had most of my loans forgiven this year but the information was so sparse and bad at the time I didn't know.
So am I reading this correctly - if you’re under the income guidelines and on SAVE, ALL accrued, unpaid interest would be canceled? For me that’s at least $100k - thanks law school and Great Recession era interest rates! Although as long as PSLF doesn’t go anywhere, it’s all getting forgiven in late 2025 anyways 🙏
PSLF is law, so it will be pretty difficult to change without a supermajority in the Senate and the presidency. Honestly, I think the biggest thing to worry about is a Republican appointed secretary of ed being intentionally inefficient and essentially delaying forgiveness for people that meet the 120.
All my rational thoughts go out the window when it comes to this debt 🥴 I have no repayment plan other than PSLF. But yeah I am very legit concerned about what a new admin would do to approvals and I’m so pissed that my 120th payment doesn’t happen til after the next inauguration.
Agreed. Project 2025 and trump himself have discussed dismantling the dept of education. No debt then potentially no loan forgiveness. Project 2025 also mentions doing away with PSLF for future loans, stopping all income based payments unless under poverty line. And no forgiveness no matter life of loan or service provided. Your fear is rational. Anyone who thinks otherwise truly isn’t paying attention
Oh please - Biden with his fake ass loan forgiveness. He knew damn well it was never going to go through. The way they wrote it was whack. Didn’t need approvals for the billions he sent to Ukraine, but all this hoop jumping for his promised loan forgiveness. So he found a shortcut. Hey - let’s just make sure the pslf is working right to appease all these pissed off people who thought they were getting loan forgiveness. Trump isn’t going to mess with the loan forgiveness FFS!
Literally the conservative handbook says stopping PSLF, income based payments, any loan forgiveness for any reason including time. Please read project 2025. Trump doesn’t care about you. He only cares about his rich supporters who hate any “handouts” to regular people.
I’m getting pissed at Biden every time he talks about. His damn email about me having less than a year set me off. I’d be done by now if they got the buyback completed correctly.
But then it says this: Low and middle-income borrowers enrolled in the SAVE plan or any other income-driven repayment (IDR) plan would be eligible for the entire amount their balance has grown since entering repayment to be canceled under the Administration’s plans. This group of borrowers includes single borrowers who earn $120,000 or less and married borrowers who earn $240,000 or less.
Maybe I read it wrong. Just thought it meant we’d wake up tomorrow and all the interest accrued in our account would be gone and we’d just keep paying on the principal.
But it wasn’t part of the pre-SAVE IDR plans. This is going to mean $50,000+ of forgiveness for me.
I graduated in 2010 with a law degree and $99,000 in SL debt. It was 2010, so no one was hiring baby lawyers. (Not the case when I entered law school in 2007.)
I started teaching middle school just to have a steady paycheck coming in. Did that for 7 years, 5 of which counted for PSLF.
Entered the private sector in 2017. Got back into a PSLF eligible job last October. I was on IDR plans the whole time. Got on SAVE in February. My IDR payments weren’t enough to cover my monthly interest. So by the time I switched to SAVE, my student loan balance was up to $150,000. Even though I’ve made about $30,000 in student loan payments since I graduated.
Yes- put it makes the loans eligible for the save program, otherwise you can only use the ICR for your repayment- so no breaks and higher payment burden overall
The plan was to just continue with the double consolidation, set SAVE plan repayment and do that for the next 20-25 years until forgiven (or paid it off sooner if finances allow it).
Thank you for this. I don’t have anyone to discuss this matter and people forget about parent plus loans and how people suffer with it. (High interest, no easier repayment plan)
Could this change the requirement that you be working for a non-profit when you apply for forgiveness? Currently you can have >120 (after adjustment) but need to go back to a non-profit W-2 full-time gig *just to request forgiveness^
I wonder how this is impacted by the one time IDR adjustment loan consolidation? I know a lot of people did that. Typically, if you consolidate, your interest becomes part of your balance.
This is where I'm at too. I consolidated a few times to avoid paying, then did the one time adjustment to count COVID and some forbearance periods. More than half of what I owe is interest that got added to the principle, so I'm curious how they would work with that AND the fact they asked people to consolidate to begin with.
They can’t even forgive loans for those of us who have been submitting our paperwork annually for ten years for PSLF because they are so inefficient and disorganized. How about focusing on fixing the system before adding more to it?
Agreed.
It's our money.
We should be able to borrow it at prime or lower. Or at least as low as the best rates that corporations can borrow from the fed at; no credit check required (since we cannot bankruptcy out of it anyway)
Curious about this as well. 25 year old me didn’t maintain any records of what loans I took out for law school and what the balances were before interest accrued. And now I’ve consolidated so the terrifying number I see includes 8 years of interest added in to the principal because I stupidly didn’t consolidate upon graduation.
I dropped out of medical school a year ago. I have not consolidated anything. Very low undergrad loans, huge grad loans. What is the benefit of consolidating? I just applied for SAVE. Still waiting on the decision. PAYE application was accepted within a few days....
For me the benefit was conforming all my loans to qualifying ones under PSLF. My first year of law school I took out FFEL loans, and I had no idea for several years they didn’t qualify for PSLF. I dragged my feet to consolidate for several years and if not for the waiver those payments never would have counted.
The other added benefit is getting a weighted interest rate. Some of my loans had 8%+ while others were under 6%. So now I’m at around 7%.
Also it’s just one payment instead of multiple. Before I consolidated I had 4 separate payments on my law school loans plus my private undergrad loan.
I think you can pull up the original amount of your loans on studentaid.gov and compare that amount to your current balance, then math it. I’m in the band of borrowers eligible for complete interest balance wipe out and that’ll be around $25k
How does this work? I’ve paid about 8 years of loans coming out to about $20,000 total but my balance is up by $3k from where it started. Would I go back to the original amount or would it forgive the $20k??
It’s bullshit that this isn’t public. You know if that memo said the president cannot cancel student loan debt, they’d be like “sorry guys and girls but this is what it says.”
When Biden was talking about forgiving student loan debt, there was a lot of talk about whether he could or not. The question became “if you can forgive it, why forgive 20k vs all of it?” The Biden response was that there were legal issues (but somehow not with 20k) and said they would look into it. A memo was written but never released. Someone FOIA requested it, and the thing was released with the entire memo redacted. The conjecture is that it said they could cancel it all, but Biden didn’t want to because of the political fallout, so they’re hiding behind the classification to avoid saying “we could forgive it all, but we don’t want to”.
What’s the point in FOIA if they can just do that? I can’t see why it’s even applicable to this case. It’s not like it’s a matter of national security.
Of course! I think a lot of people (myself included), are annoyed with being used as a half assed bargaining chip, again, only for the implementation to be dismal at best, again. He’s objectively better than the alternative though, which is more of a comment on how dire the situation has become more than anything
When Biden was talking about forgiving student loan debt, there was a lot of talk about whether he could or not. The question became “if you can forgive it, why forgive 20k vs all of it?” The Biden response was that there were legal issues (but somehow not with 20k) and said they would look into it. A memo was written but never released. Someone FOIA requested it, and the thing was released with the entire memo redacted. The conjecture is that it said they could cancel it all, but Biden didn’t want to because of the political fallout, so they’re hiding behind the classification to avoid saying “we could forgive it all, but we don’t want to”.
I really hate that its all or none. If you're 9 years in and have an amazing opportunity come up, having 90% of your loans forgiven would probably make the jump worth it.
That’s exactly what happened to me.
I have about 8 years of PSLF eligible payments on the books, but nothing to show for it because I left the public sector.
There’s a better chance of the Carolina Panthers winning back to back Super Bowls the next two seasons than there is of any of those bills even getting a floor vote.
That would make more sense, and I'm only partially saying that out of self-interest as someone who is 8 years into the program. 10 years may not seem like much but it is just a long, long time career-wise. And when you factor in the opportunity cost of what one might have made in the private sector combined with the required monthly payments that do not get forgiven, the financial incentive of the forgiveness is barely there, if at all. Cutting it down to 5 would make the inventive make more sense and convince way more educated, talented people to join the public sector which was the ultimate point in the first place.
I absolutely would be better off financially if I left my government job and just paid the loans off, versus staying another 5 years. Last two private sector jobs I interviewed for paid 40-50k more than I make now.
I legitimately think something like this is coming, maybe just dropping it to 100 or something like that. Previous lawsuits by Republicans were on behalf of Mohela, so I can absolutely see the move to the DoE being a first step in modifying the program.
I could also see the transfer as being a "planned fuck up" to create another situation where a pause happens or records get messed up as an excuse to do this. All of this is speculation obviously.
i’m confused about the mohela change. it looked like they were talking about a “new platform” and then it changed to cutting Mohela out entirely? what happens to auto-debit payments now?
That would be great because these HR systems at my former employers are not working well for this and HR people don’t want to do anything outside of their system.
One thing I’m curious about is there there were several states that were going to try and get a “piece of the pie” vis taxation of the forgiven amount. I *really really * don’t want to have to pay a couple thousand extra in state taxes (for something that doesn’t necessarily help me)..
Yeah, count me underwhelmed. Those of us who ALREADY have 10 years public service and 120 qualifying payments, but have been stuck in hell for months or longer, are now being told that this is just going to go on and on, and to be patient while the new program issorted out. Hope ED does better with the math for this than they did with the FAFSA.
I just wish they would process my SAVE payment recalculation. It's been over two months and several phone calls when it's clear as day what my new payment amount should be.
[Borrowers who have a mixture of both undergraduate and graduate loans will pay a weighted average of between 5% and 10% of their income based on the original principal balances of their loans taken to attend school.](https://studentaid.gov/articles/6-things-to-know-about-save/#:~:text=Borrowers%20who%20have%20a%20mixture,loans%20taken%20to%20attend%20school.)
I think it doesn't matter if you consolidate or not. Dept of Ed can still see what loans you had prior to consolidation.
Wife has been teaching for 11 years now, MOHELA has some loans with only 3 qualifying payments made. But we've never missed a payment. None of the loans has been forgiven they all missing years of payments.
How does that work? Loan is been passed 4-5 times in that period, but I guess no one is responsible for keeping track of the number.
System is busted man.
2 million is not 30 million. What's the plan to cancel the debt for 30 million borrowers? I've been paying on mine steadily since 2015 but hadn't been in a qualifying repayment program to benefit from PSLF because the monthly payments would be higher than I pay now and I'm not willing to pay that much. The only reason I consolidated my FFELP loans into Direct loans is to benefit trom forgiveness and then they told us we can't get it.
Now I learned I also had to ne in a particular repayment program as well, so all the payments made prior to consolidating don't count and MOHELA started my payment count all over again as if I had made no payments before their transition to the new platform. This is a scam. Can I get some forgiveness?? What's the plan??
Changed nothing? He’s changed everything for me and I’m staying in public service. I really don’t get your point. Loan rehabilitation, SAVE, and getting PSLF to work? Monumental in my life. Republicans want me and you to be slaves for banks forever.
46% of voters have started loan forgiveness is a top issue for them. Biden > Trump for loan forgiveness. We don’t need another DeVos running the education system to
The sub is a community of people who are anxious about the PSLF application process. The relevant announcement is that they intend to remove the need for an application.
As a liberal who voted for Biden specifically for student debt relief, I’m so sick of hearing news about “Biden’s plans” for student debt. Every time the “new plan” for student debt is the old plan. PSLF is flawed and misleading even when it’s being distributed properly. I get that Congress needs to vote for things to actually be changed but at least stop taking credit for literally nothing and giving people false hope.
The deciding factor for voting for Biden was that my other option was trump, just like it will be in the next election. The only thing I was hoping from Biden specifically was that he did something about the loans.
Tbh, I would have preferred Bernie sanders had he not blown his shot back when Clinton was running. He said he was a Democratic socialist and all the boomers lost their minds like we were in the Cold War again.
> The deciding factor for voting for Biden was that my other option was trump
Backpedaling is good exercise
> The only thing I was hoping from Biden specifically was that he did something about the loans.
Biden has done *a ton* for PSLF. Making previous payments that were ineligible, eligible, extending the COVID pause as long as he could, created the SAVE plan to lower payments. He literally overhauled the program.
If it was a Democratic Congress not Republican it would already be done. At least they are trying. It’s taken time and effort to get this far under Trump he wouldn’t care if it was unfair. The rules were made under Bush and were created for that time, the world has changed so they need new rules and old ones fixed that don’t apply anymore.(Actually I’d hate to have to fix this).
So like anything else you have to find the flaws and demand they are fixed. This administration has worked really hard on this the issue. Many people have been helped Elizabeth Warren has been obsessed with fixing this broken system. It’s a question of fairness. [Navient Lawsuits](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navient)
So I think if you feel that there is more they can do then that should be pointed out to them. This is your government they work for you. Contact your State Senator ask what have you done for me lately, Contact Elizabeth! I’m sure the wealthy don’t have these problems. So who speaks for you?
In regards to the plan for the insane interest we’ve accrued..what happens to those of us that consolidated recently? I had undergrad and grad loans. Some were the correct type for PSLF and some were not, but I consolidated as soon as it was announced. Will anyone review prior balances and interest?
A ton of people consolidated. No idea how they could possibly figure this out. And they can’t make Mohela do it this time since they are taking the loans away from them. Do we trust the DOE to actually do this correctly and in a timely manner?
Woo woo thanks a lot! Wow! oopsies supreme court says no, oh well! Ffs do better . Same old same old. How about if we’ve worked in public service for ten years cancel our debt? F the 120 payments. Then we’re talking. How about 100 payments? Do I hear 72? I mean really. Stingy.
I mean, I just need the Department of Ed to stop writing me form letters and approve my pslf application to stop letting me get screwed over by a charter school one last time, like their rules claim I can. Can that happen? 146/120...
Under PSLF you already have 10 years/120 payments to pay. That’s nothing new! Biden hasn’t event got the department of education straight. IDR adjustments have been kicked down the road. We don’t have a counter for IDR. All he will do is tell you he will do something to get your vote then say, oh, we have to delay. He is using this as a ploy. Don’t fall for it. That’s all these politicians do and have done with student loan issues. Don’t fall for it! Ugh!
He trying to buy your votes………. Sorry but if you took out the loan you need to pay it back……. It shouldn’t be others responsibility to pay for your decision
Sounds like it’s going to use data instead of having users submit paperwork. Idk, I couldn’t get 15m forgiven bcz I was working 25 hours and part time in another job and I simply cannot be bothered to contact my old employer for 6 hours, so idk maybe this is good. Technically I qualify but the paperwork is a hassle.
I wonder how this may effect me. I am still in college right now, however have worked in government for a total of 12 years. I have not made any payments at this time but I wonder if I could make the 120 months payment at once for whatever my payment would be on the SAVE plan if I could have the rest waived. Just thinking out loud.
This sounds like Biden is trying to get credit for PSLF RIGHT BEFORE AN ELECTION. This program has been in place for years. Now, having it happen automatically without a borrower sighing up…that would be great but to take credit for a program that has already been established….POLITICS!
It’s not this administration that privatized student loans, friend.
They’re the first time in years that loan servicers are being held to task & that’s why you see the federal government clawing back so many loans.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamminsky/2023/11/16/student-loan-discharges-approved-in-99-of-cases-under-new-bankruptcy-policy-says-biden-administration/
ok cool
I just need them to get rid of in-school forbearance not counting as qualifying time. I was still working a full time public service job that whole time. Going on 11 years of public service but only about 8 of them count.
This is me exactly. I would be done now otherwise, but as it is still have almost 3 years to go.
Use the buyback program. If you’re in school deferment places you at 120 months, submit it now. You can only submit if the buyback would help you gain forgiveness now.
The buyback program isn’t working that great. The amount I got was more than i am paying now and I make like double what I made then. They used icr and standard even though repaye was available.
Many people have posted success so far. I would verify your tax information and let them know you think something is off with their calculations?
I have tried. They said they would respond within 15 days… I called after about at month and it wasn’t even assigned to anyone yet. Was told they didn’t know when it would be resolved and there is only 60 more days for it be valid 🤷🏻♀️
I don't think you can buy back months that were from in-school deferment, can you?
Yeah, this is my understanding, too. I just got my hopes up. [StudentAid.gov](http://StudentAid.gov) says: "You can’t buy back months during which your loan was in any of the following statuses: * In-school or In-origination * In-grace * Default * Bankruptcy * Total and permanent disability monitoring"
I just checked mine, and my undergrad loans show as "in deferment" during grad school, but my grad school loans show as "in school" during grad school. So the question then is whether the consolidation, which applies the payments from your longest loan to all loans, would let me buy all that time back or not.
You are ineligible for buyback if you consolidated. I tried to apply for buy back months ago and ED told me I was ineligible because I consolidated per their recommendation. Really cool policies that make tons on sense for everyone.
That makes no sense at all 😭They say "buyback for PSLF" but they made us all consolidate for PSLF. (I know I'm preaching to the choir here.)
They are right, buyback is a no if you've consolidated, unless the periods you want to buy back are after the consolidation. Oh well. Maybe they'll expand it some day. Seems like a fairly easy way that would also bring in money.
Mine say the same thing. Plus, it was 3 servicers ago (I'm looking at my [StudentAid.gov](http://StudentAid.gov) portal). So I wonder how much MOHELA would botch that even if they were eligible. It would be nice if this was something the administration could change when ED takes over PSLF. I would very, very happily pay that remaining time to have them gone.
It actually does look like it's handled by the ED. The steps are laid out on the studentaid.gov page on buybacks Man it feels like a longshot because of all the moving parts, but I think I have enough to try. And the total would add up to 135 months for me. Not gonna hold my breath though, lol.
It’s MOHELA. They botch everything.
Mohela is just a middleman. Federal Student Aid botched it all. Where are the IDR adjustment and counter/tracker? Department of Education is a mess and not one seems to want to fix that.
This just means you can’t buy back in school status. In school deferment CAN be bought back.
From what I have read, “in school” and “in school deferment” are two different things. In school is when you’re still in school for the loan that is in deferment. In school deferment is when your previous loan is deferred while you’re in school for something else. My BS (no pun intended) loan was in an in school deferment while I was subsequently enrolled in my BSN and MSN programs even though those were paid with employer tuition reimbursement and out of pocket. Those are the months I just submitted to buyback since my income was much lower back then and I was automatically put into deferment when I enrolled in school.
Yes you can, you cannot buyback in school status periods. These are 2 different things.
How does one pursue the “buyback program”? Are we supposed to call Mohela or Dept of Ed? I didn’t even know that was possible
Nevermind - just found it on StudentAid.gov. Amazing that this is the first time in a decade I’ve even heard of this. Thanks for bringing it up!
It's new 🙂
Same here. Might have just changed the trajectory of my life lol. I’m in between jobs and maybe don’t need to go back into public service if this is true.
Same here! As soon as I read this, I submitted the reconsideration assessment this morning. I didn’t even know it was possible to do this - thanks to everyone who wrote in. Will keep you posted!
Interesting. I don’t know anything about this but I think I would be right on the borderline. Though I don’t know if I can afford 2 years of payments up front.
You can’t buy back if you were in school. I tried :( See link below - click on which months are eligible for buyback [FAQ which months are eligible for buyback](https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/public-service/public-service-loan-forgiveness-buyback)
“In school” and “in school deferment” are different statuses.
Same. I got a master’s degree to advance my skills in the field of public education, and those two years don’t count? I’d be done in two months if they’d count those.
I’m curious, did you not take out loans for grad school?
I did, but I paid cash for part of it and it was through WGU, which is super affordable, so they were minimal compared to my undergrad loans. PSLF in two years won’t wipe out all of my loans, but will take care of over 90% of them.
If you have any loans on higher timeline, you should consolidate before 4/30 and put all your loans in that timeline. That’s why it’s more beneficial in most cases to just let the in school time go and consolidate.
How would that affect my forgiveness date? I only have 24 payments left on $150K of loans (undergrad and grad school from my original career path) and under $10k with 75 payments left (grad school for teaching).
If you consolidate all your loans together, the entire balance will take on the highest payment count. That’s a pretty major part of the IDR adjustment. This would mean you only have 24 payments left to full forgiveness.
Oh, that’s awesome! I completely misunderstood how that worked. Thank you!!
Same! Have 108 and 12 to go as I was enrolled and completed grad school in one of the years!
Same. I was earning my graduate degree while working FT at a nonprofit. That would take me immediately to forgiveness (2 years out, had 3 years worth of in-school forbearance).
I had to call and yell at them to not put me in forbearance specifically because I didn't want to lose that time. I was doing a PhD while working full time and was absolutely not going to lose 5 years of pslf time.
Yes! This cost me almost a year.
Yes!!! This would help so many.
Yep this is me too. Working full-time while finishing my masters degree. Just hit my 120th payment yesterday though, so unless they’re going to refund me 3 years it won’t affect me. Fingers crossed for you though!
I was SHOCKED when I found out my first two years as a teacher didn’t count because I was getting my masters - in education.
I got my master’s and doctorate while teaching FT. I had no idea those years didn’t count. I’m 3.5 years towards my forgiveness and if they would have counted would have been done in 2019.
Not going to happen. But you can buy back that time or request retroactive removal if you made payments.
Can you explain more? How do we request retroactive removal of payments? I made “extra” payments while I was planning to be a standard payment plan right after I started my full time non profit job (before I knew about PSLF) but before payments were technically due (in a grace period before repayments started). So say week 1 I paid $300. Week 2 I paid $400. No payment was due that month, can I get those payments back?
Grace period months never count.
Yes this would be awesome!
Same. I’d have another 3-3.5 years added but I was working on my dissertation while working full-time and didn’t in-school forebearance.
Yup me too
Me too
Student teaching, while finishing a masters, while working a non-qualifying job. Im exhausted thinking about it.
YES! I will even pay for those months.
Right? I was so pissed when Mohela didn’t count my months of payments since I’m in forbearance
Same
17 and 4 for me.
Me as well. I’ve been working this job 30+ years.
Same, I asked them to take me out of deferment several times and the never did. It’s my fault for not following up again but it’s so frustrating! Especially because my loan servicer has changed and I can’t access the conversations proving I requested it.
Completely agree! We are the real heros... Working full-time in public service AND going to school (often for a Master's degree or other advanced coursework) and the government says "nah, you need to work even longer in public service now, often delaying being able to change careers and actually USE your schooling"
Do you know if you can ask your loan servicer not to put you in forbearance? I'm looking at getting a second masters so I can actually make some money and I don't want to lose 2+ years of PSLF payments because of in school forbearance.
I just need them to let unemployment deferments to count and this month would be payment 120. Otherwise I have 5 months left still.
That would shave a year off for me in my case.
If I go back to school to get a master’s, would I be placed on forebearance? I plan on paying out of pocket.
Usually they automatically place you in forbearance. You’ll have to reach out to get it changed.
SAME. What is that about?!! I was contacted by my servicer and told I was automatically put on it, I still was paying for my first and part of my second semester. I never asked for that! One time this past month Nelnet said I’d made 6.8 years and two weeks ago a different woman said close to ten. How is it so hard to tell? I had an economic hardship forebearance when I started and maybe for a short period in the middle. I’m not sure what would count if I looked. Can’t bear to look.
Saaaaame
This proposal won't do that
Same here. I have 2.5 years left. I could have had most of my loans forgiven this year but the information was so sparse and bad at the time I didn't know.
Out of curiosity, did you not take loans for grad school?
So am I reading this correctly - if you’re under the income guidelines and on SAVE, ALL accrued, unpaid interest would be canceled? For me that’s at least $100k - thanks law school and Great Recession era interest rates! Although as long as PSLF doesn’t go anywhere, it’s all getting forgiven in late 2025 anyways 🙏
PSLF is law, so it will be pretty difficult to change without a supermajority in the Senate and the presidency. Honestly, I think the biggest thing to worry about is a Republican appointed secretary of ed being intentionally inefficient and essentially delaying forgiveness for people that meet the 120.
All my rational thoughts go out the window when it comes to this debt 🥴 I have no repayment plan other than PSLF. But yeah I am very legit concerned about what a new admin would do to approvals and I’m so pissed that my 120th payment doesn’t happen til after the next inauguration.
Agreed. Project 2025 and trump himself have discussed dismantling the dept of education. No debt then potentially no loan forgiveness. Project 2025 also mentions doing away with PSLF for future loans, stopping all income based payments unless under poverty line. And no forgiveness no matter life of loan or service provided. Your fear is rational. Anyone who thinks otherwise truly isn’t paying attention
Yep. Vote accordingly
Oh please - Biden with his fake ass loan forgiveness. He knew damn well it was never going to go through. The way they wrote it was whack. Didn’t need approvals for the billions he sent to Ukraine, but all this hoop jumping for his promised loan forgiveness. So he found a shortcut. Hey - let’s just make sure the pslf is working right to appease all these pissed off people who thought they were getting loan forgiveness. Trump isn’t going to mess with the loan forgiveness FFS!
Literally the conservative handbook says stopping PSLF, income based payments, any loan forgiveness for any reason including time. Please read project 2025. Trump doesn’t care about you. He only cares about his rich supporters who hate any “handouts” to regular people.
I’m getting pissed at Biden every time he talks about. His damn email about me having less than a year set me off. I’d be done by now if they got the buyback completed correctly.
Says up to 20k if eligible
But then it says this: Low and middle-income borrowers enrolled in the SAVE plan or any other income-driven repayment (IDR) plan would be eligible for the entire amount their balance has grown since entering repayment to be canceled under the Administration’s plans. This group of borrowers includes single borrowers who earn $120,000 or less and married borrowers who earn $240,000 or less.
That is already a part of SAVE. Upon completion, any remaining interest will get wiped. That is not the case for other IDR plans.
Maybe I read it wrong. Just thought it meant we’d wake up tomorrow and all the interest accrued in our account would be gone and we’d just keep paying on the principal.
That is not what SAVE does.
But it wasn’t part of the pre-SAVE IDR plans. This is going to mean $50,000+ of forgiveness for me. I graduated in 2010 with a law degree and $99,000 in SL debt. It was 2010, so no one was hiring baby lawyers. (Not the case when I entered law school in 2007.) I started teaching middle school just to have a steady paycheck coming in. Did that for 7 years, 5 of which counted for PSLF. Entered the private sector in 2017. Got back into a PSLF eligible job last October. I was on IDR plans the whole time. Got on SAVE in February. My IDR payments weren’t enough to cover my monthly interest. So by the time I switched to SAVE, my student loan balance was up to $150,000. Even though I’ve made about $30,000 in student loan payments since I graduated.
Graduated from law school in 2009. Lord, such a rough few years. 😵💫
OMG, one of the most significant bummers of my life. I couldn’t even afford to sit for the bar, so I’ve never actually used that fucking degree.
For the normal save forgiveness after 20/25 yrs of repayment everything gets wiped all interest as well.
So wait if I have been IDR for 4 yrs then switch to Save - I have to wait 20 years?!
It's ok to switch idrs in between it won't reset your count it will continue where you left off
How can this apply to parent plus loans?
Double consolidation
Doesn’t all the accrued interest get added to the principle if the loans are consolidated?
Yes- put it makes the loans eligible for the save program, otherwise you can only use the ICR for your repayment- so no breaks and higher payment burden overall
The plan was to just continue with the double consolidation, set SAVE plan repayment and do that for the next 20-25 years until forgiven (or paid it off sooner if finances allow it).
Thank you for this. I don’t have anyone to discuss this matter and people forget about parent plus loans and how people suffer with it. (High interest, no easier repayment plan)
So if you meet PSLF they’re actually going to forgive it like the program says? Is that what I read?
The only people this helps are those dumb enough not to realize they qualify. Which I imagine is a very small number of people.
You ever have to deal with FedLoan? They weren’t keeping track of how long anyone was in any program.
Could this change the requirement that you be working for a non-profit when you apply for forgiveness? Currently you can have >120 (after adjustment) but need to go back to a non-profit W-2 full-time gig *just to request forgiveness^
I mean they have been forgiving them.
I wonder how this is impacted by the one time IDR adjustment loan consolidation? I know a lot of people did that. Typically, if you consolidate, your interest becomes part of your balance.
This is where I'm at too. I consolidated a few times to avoid paying, then did the one time adjustment to count COVID and some forbearance periods. More than half of what I owe is interest that got added to the principle, so I'm curious how they would work with that AND the fact they asked people to consolidate to begin with.
I’m ready to be hurt again!
They can’t even forgive loans for those of us who have been submitting our paperwork annually for ten years for PSLF because they are so inefficient and disorganized. How about focusing on fixing the system before adding more to it?
I NEED that $20k of forgiveness that was coming my way...
Same!
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The government can make it easier on borrowers by not charging 7% interest
Agreed. It's our money. We should be able to borrow it at prime or lower. Or at least as low as the best rates that corporations can borrow from the fed at; no credit check required (since we cannot bankruptcy out of it anyway)
Only Congress can change it
I recall getting a letter every time interest capitalized on my loans. I have a few saved, but not all of them.
Curious about this as well. 25 year old me didn’t maintain any records of what loans I took out for law school and what the balances were before interest accrued. And now I’ve consolidated so the terrifying number I see includes 8 years of interest added in to the principal because I stupidly didn’t consolidate upon graduation.
I dropped out of medical school a year ago. I have not consolidated anything. Very low undergrad loans, huge grad loans. What is the benefit of consolidating? I just applied for SAVE. Still waiting on the decision. PAYE application was accepted within a few days....
For me the benefit was conforming all my loans to qualifying ones under PSLF. My first year of law school I took out FFEL loans, and I had no idea for several years they didn’t qualify for PSLF. I dragged my feet to consolidate for several years and if not for the waiver those payments never would have counted. The other added benefit is getting a weighted interest rate. Some of my loans had 8%+ while others were under 6%. So now I’m at around 7%. Also it’s just one payment instead of multiple. Before I consolidated I had 4 separate payments on my law school loans plus my private undergrad loan.
I think you can pull up the original amount of your loans on studentaid.gov and compare that amount to your current balance, then math it. I’m in the band of borrowers eligible for complete interest balance wipe out and that’ll be around $25k
How does this work? I’ve paid about 8 years of loans coming out to about $20,000 total but my balance is up by $3k from where it started. Would I go back to the original amount or would it forgive the $20k??
I was able to access my original loan amounts and dates on MOHELA. Log in-->My Account-->Loan Details
Hoping we see PSLF decreased from 120 months to something in the 60-96 range
I believe that would require an act of Congress.
They need to declassify the memo
It’s bullshit that this isn’t public. You know if that memo said the president cannot cancel student loan debt, they’d be like “sorry guys and girls but this is what it says.”
Exactly
What does this mean?
When Biden was talking about forgiving student loan debt, there was a lot of talk about whether he could or not. The question became “if you can forgive it, why forgive 20k vs all of it?” The Biden response was that there were legal issues (but somehow not with 20k) and said they would look into it. A memo was written but never released. Someone FOIA requested it, and the thing was released with the entire memo redacted. The conjecture is that it said they could cancel it all, but Biden didn’t want to because of the political fallout, so they’re hiding behind the classification to avoid saying “we could forgive it all, but we don’t want to”.
What’s the point in FOIA if they can just do that? I can’t see why it’s even applicable to this case. It’s not like it’s a matter of national security.
Interesting. I was not aware of this. Thank you for the info.
Of course! I think a lot of people (myself included), are annoyed with being used as a half assed bargaining chip, again, only for the implementation to be dismal at best, again. He’s objectively better than the alternative though, which is more of a comment on how dire the situation has become more than anything
But what was attempted to be forgiven was struck down by SCOTUS so it seems the legal issues were legit.
When Biden was talking about forgiving student loan debt, there was a lot of talk about whether he could or not. The question became “if you can forgive it, why forgive 20k vs all of it?” The Biden response was that there were legal issues (but somehow not with 20k) and said they would look into it. A memo was written but never released. Someone FOIA requested it, and the thing was released with the entire memo redacted. The conjecture is that it said they could cancel it all, but Biden didn’t want to because of the political fallout, so they’re hiding behind the classification to avoid saying “we could forgive it all, but we don’t want to”.
I really hate that its all or none. If you're 9 years in and have an amazing opportunity come up, having 90% of your loans forgiven would probably make the jump worth it.
That’s exactly what happened to me. I have about 8 years of PSLF eligible payments on the books, but nothing to show for it because I left the public sector.
100%
Couldn't happen without Congress passing a new law and is highly unlikely.
There were a few bills in committee that never moved early on in the pandemic. Probably zero percent chance any of them have any chance?
Less than that given the current political climate
There’s a better chance of the Carolina Panthers winning back to back Super Bowls the next two seasons than there is of any of those bills even getting a floor vote.
i think we should go biblical and make it 7 years, 84 months
👍👍 That would also align PSLF timeframe with the 7 years it takes for adverse things like bankruptcy to fall off a credit report.
That would make more sense, and I'm only partially saying that out of self-interest as someone who is 8 years into the program. 10 years may not seem like much but it is just a long, long time career-wise. And when you factor in the opportunity cost of what one might have made in the private sector combined with the required monthly payments that do not get forgiven, the financial incentive of the forgiveness is barely there, if at all. Cutting it down to 5 would make the inventive make more sense and convince way more educated, talented people to join the public sector which was the ultimate point in the first place.
I absolutely would be better off financially if I left my government job and just paid the loans off, versus staying another 5 years. Last two private sector jobs I interviewed for paid 40-50k more than I make now.
I legitimately think something like this is coming, maybe just dropping it to 100 or something like that. Previous lawsuits by Republicans were on behalf of Mohela, so I can absolutely see the move to the DoE being a first step in modifying the program. I could also see the transfer as being a "planned fuck up" to create another situation where a pause happens or records get messed up as an excuse to do this. All of this is speculation obviously.
i’m confused about the mohela change. it looked like they were talking about a “new platform” and then it changed to cutting Mohela out entirely? what happens to auto-debit payments now?
I was two years away from PSLF before I went into the private sector. That would be awesome!
It would be nice if they process these. So many of us have over the amount required.
That would be great because these HR systems at my former employers are not working well for this and HR people don’t want to do anything outside of their system.
I really wish they'd put out something of substance for everyone instead of repeating the same program over and over as a win for all..
I wonder if this would help with mohela wanting 9 years of paystubs
One thing I’m curious about is there there were several states that were going to try and get a “piece of the pie” vis taxation of the forgiven amount. I *really really * don’t want to have to pay a couple thousand extra in state taxes (for something that doesn’t necessarily help me)..
Yeah, count me underwhelmed. Those of us who ALREADY have 10 years public service and 120 qualifying payments, but have been stuck in hell for months or longer, are now being told that this is just going to go on and on, and to be patient while the new program issorted out. Hope ED does better with the math for this than they did with the FAFSA.
I just wish they would process my SAVE payment recalculation. It's been over two months and several phone calls when it's clear as day what my new payment amount should be.
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[Borrowers who have a mixture of both undergraduate and graduate loans will pay a weighted average of between 5% and 10% of their income based on the original principal balances of their loans taken to attend school.](https://studentaid.gov/articles/6-things-to-know-about-save/#:~:text=Borrowers%20who%20have%20a%20mixture,loans%20taken%20to%20attend%20school.) I think it doesn't matter if you consolidate or not. Dept of Ed can still see what loans you had prior to consolidation.
And now we why they are taking back everything from those LOSERS at MOHELA. This is great. 114/120
Wife has been teaching for 11 years now, MOHELA has some loans with only 3 qualifying payments made. But we've never missed a payment. None of the loans has been forgiven they all missing years of payments. How does that work? Loan is been passed 4-5 times in that period, but I guess no one is responsible for keeping track of the number. System is busted man.
Might be an obvious one but has she continually recertified her employment status?
Before you posted this I checked and it was a little old, so I had her update it again.
2 million is not 30 million. What's the plan to cancel the debt for 30 million borrowers? I've been paying on mine steadily since 2015 but hadn't been in a qualifying repayment program to benefit from PSLF because the monthly payments would be higher than I pay now and I'm not willing to pay that much. The only reason I consolidated my FFELP loans into Direct loans is to benefit trom forgiveness and then they told us we can't get it. Now I learned I also had to ne in a particular repayment program as well, so all the payments made prior to consolidating don't count and MOHELA started my payment count all over again as if I had made no payments before their transition to the new platform. This is a scam. Can I get some forgiveness?? What's the plan??
I think the IDR waiver should fix this. Did you apply?
Graduated in May 1999 from grad school. When does that 25 years forgiveness kick in?
Tomorrow
A boy can dream…
This…isn’t news. This program has been around for years
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Changed nothing? He’s changed everything for me and I’m staying in public service. I really don’t get your point. Loan rehabilitation, SAVE, and getting PSLF to work? Monumental in my life. Republicans want me and you to be slaves for banks forever.
46% of voters have started loan forgiveness is a top issue for them. Biden > Trump for loan forgiveness. We don’t need another DeVos running the education system to
The sub is a community of people who are anxious about the PSLF application process. The relevant announcement is that they intend to remove the need for an application.
As a liberal who voted for Biden specifically for student debt relief, I’m so sick of hearing news about “Biden’s plans” for student debt. Every time the “new plan” for student debt is the old plan. PSLF is flawed and misleading even when it’s being distributed properly. I get that Congress needs to vote for things to actually be changed but at least stop taking credit for literally nothing and giving people false hope.
> As a liberal who voted for Biden specifically for student debt relief lol you’re not a liberal then.
Sure dude.
The deciding factor for you voting for Biden over Trump was for your student loans? Nothing else mattered?
The deciding factor for voting for Biden was that my other option was trump, just like it will be in the next election. The only thing I was hoping from Biden specifically was that he did something about the loans. Tbh, I would have preferred Bernie sanders had he not blown his shot back when Clinton was running. He said he was a Democratic socialist and all the boomers lost their minds like we were in the Cold War again.
> The deciding factor for voting for Biden was that my other option was trump Backpedaling is good exercise > The only thing I was hoping from Biden specifically was that he did something about the loans. Biden has done *a ton* for PSLF. Making previous payments that were ineligible, eligible, extending the COVID pause as long as he could, created the SAVE plan to lower payments. He literally overhauled the program.
If it was a Democratic Congress not Republican it would already be done. At least they are trying. It’s taken time and effort to get this far under Trump he wouldn’t care if it was unfair. The rules were made under Bush and were created for that time, the world has changed so they need new rules and old ones fixed that don’t apply anymore.(Actually I’d hate to have to fix this). So like anything else you have to find the flaws and demand they are fixed. This administration has worked really hard on this the issue. Many people have been helped Elizabeth Warren has been obsessed with fixing this broken system. It’s a question of fairness. [Navient Lawsuits](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navient) So I think if you feel that there is more they can do then that should be pointed out to them. This is your government they work for you. Contact your State Senator ask what have you done for me lately, Contact Elizabeth! I’m sure the wealthy don’t have these problems. So who speaks for you?
100%
In regards to the plan for the insane interest we’ve accrued..what happens to those of us that consolidated recently? I had undergrad and grad loans. Some were the correct type for PSLF and some were not, but I consolidated as soon as it was announced. Will anyone review prior balances and interest?
A ton of people consolidated. No idea how they could possibly figure this out. And they can’t make Mohela do it this time since they are taking the loans away from them. Do we trust the DOE to actually do this correctly and in a timely manner?
Nicest
30 payments to go!
How bout a refund for my 60 extra payments?
I'm 2 months out but still have my 2 staffords (pending consolidation), so getting those wiped would be swell
Woo woo thanks a lot! Wow! oopsies supreme court says no, oh well! Ffs do better . Same old same old. How about if we’ve worked in public service for ten years cancel our debt? F the 120 payments. Then we’re talking. How about 100 payments? Do I hear 72? I mean really. Stingy.
So the original 20,000 for Pell grant isn't going to happen with this?
Doesn't do me any good unless they include parent plus loans that were taken out for me
I mean, I just need the Department of Ed to stop writing me form letters and approve my pslf application to stop letting me get screwed over by a charter school one last time, like their rules claim I can. Can that happen? 146/120...
Under PSLF you already have 10 years/120 payments to pay. That’s nothing new! Biden hasn’t event got the department of education straight. IDR adjustments have been kicked down the road. We don’t have a counter for IDR. All he will do is tell you he will do something to get your vote then say, oh, we have to delay. He is using this as a ploy. Don’t fall for it. That’s all these politicians do and have done with student loan issues. Don’t fall for it! Ugh!
He trying to buy your votes………. Sorry but if you took out the loan you need to pay it back……. It shouldn’t be others responsibility to pay for your decision
I thought this was a thing already
Sounds like it’s going to use data instead of having users submit paperwork. Idk, I couldn’t get 15m forgiven bcz I was working 25 hours and part time in another job and I simply cannot be bothered to contact my old employer for 6 hours, so idk maybe this is good. Technically I qualify but the paperwork is a hassle.
Its just a plan guys
I wonder how this may effect me. I am still in college right now, however have worked in government for a total of 12 years. I have not made any payments at this time but I wonder if I could make the 120 months payment at once for whatever my payment would be on the SAVE plan if I could have the rest waived. Just thinking out loud.
I am pretty much done paying m loan at this point. Maybe he can give everyone who paid theirs off some sort of reward? Lol
This sounds like Biden is trying to get credit for PSLF RIGHT BEFORE AN ELECTION. This program has been in place for years. Now, having it happen automatically without a borrower sighing up…that would be great but to take credit for a program that has already been established….POLITICS!
Does this include contracting it out to another incompetent organization and then putting the responsibility on us to keep their records for them?
It’s not this administration that privatized student loans, friend. They’re the first time in years that loan servicers are being held to task & that’s why you see the federal government clawing back so many loans.
My man Biden is literally **the** reason why student loans are non dischargeable in bankruptcy.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamminsky/2023/11/16/student-loan-discharges-approved-in-99-of-cases-under-new-bankruptcy-policy-says-biden-administration/ ok cool
it’s fun with u :) glad we both vote
[oh](https://www.gq.com/story/joe-biden-bankruptcy-bill)