Don’t Wait to Apply for PSLF Forgiveness!
As I write this post in October 2022, I am in the middle of the PSLF process with only 6 remains payments needed for full forgiveness. The program, Public Service Loan Forgiveness was created in the early 2000’s to assist people in public service (nurses, social workers, teachers, etc) obtain forgiveness after paying for 10 years/120 payments. Payments made in 2007 and later can be counted towards this forgiveness and the public servant needed to submit verification of employment. An additional criteria for this program was to be in an income based repayment plan in order to have payments counted towards forgiveness.
Since 2007, many of us in the program have found it confusing, been placed into the wrong payments plans or they have been put in deferment due to not being able to afford payments or even the income based ones. This was a huge part of my experience; not being able to afford the payments due to being a single parent with little support and job incomes that were low even though they were under the income based repayment program. Unfortunately this happened for a few years in my process.
In 2022, President Biden and the US Department of Education modified the PSLF program in order to streamline it so more people can obtain forgiveness by counting any payments made even if they were late, made during deferment, or not in the correct repayment plan. Another bonus is that it will provide credit for times when people were placed into deferment including the following from the website: “Forbearance periods of 12 consecutive months or greater, or 36 cumulative months or greater will count under the waiver.” The website also has streamlined submitting employee certification so you can create the form on-line, print it, have your employer sign it and upload it back to your account portal. This limited waiver is set to expire by October 31st 2022.
More recently, the US Department of Education has indicated they will provide loan forgiveness of $20,000 to people with Pell Grants from the Department of Education and $10,000 for those without Pell Grants. There are income limits of $125,00 for single people and $250,000 for married couples. The form to apply will be available on the website in October 2022. If you believe you qualify, please click on this link to apply, set up a profile and gather more information.
If you think you might qualify, get this done now because you might qualify and it is easier than you think it might be. Also, student loan payments are on pause until December 31st 2022.
There are a great resources below and there is an amazing Facebook group that has made a difference in my own PSLF process. If you don’t have a Facebook account, it would be worth creating one to join the group.
Resources:
https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/public-service
https://studentaid.gov/announcements-events/pslf-limited-waiver
https://studentaid.gov/debt-relief-announcement/one-time-cancellation
