WASHINGTON, DC – May 24: James Kvaal, Under Secretary of Education, delivers his opening remarks … [+]
The Department of Education is touting a brand new and improved tracking system for student loan forgiveness this month. The initiative is a component of a broader, long-planned effort to streamline Public Service Loan Forgiveness and other loan forgiveness programs and make application processes more transparent for borrowers.
“The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) is currently updating borrowers’ procedures for participating in the PSLF program,” said U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education James Kvaal in a blog entry last week. “These exciting changes have been in development for many years as the Department has worked to both overhaul loan administration and implement significant improvements to its loan forgiveness programs, which include PSLF.”
Here’s a breakdown of those recent improvements and what borrowers looking for student loan forgiveness should expect.
Student loan forgiveness tracking now available again for PSLF
PSLF allows borrowers to receive student loan forgiveness on their federal direct loans after making 120 qualifying monthly payments. Borrowers must work as full-time employees for certain nonprofit or government organizations for no less than 10 years while meeting other program requirements to be eligible for forgiveness.
Previously, borrowers who had approved employment history could track their qualifying PSLF payments through MOHELA, one in all the Department of Education’s contracted loan servicers. MOHELA took over administration of the PSLF program from FedLoan Servicing. However, because a single servicer was contracted to handle this student loan debt relief program, many borrowers needed to make cumbersome and sometimes disruptive transfers of student loan servicing.
One of the core features of the brand new improvements is that PSLF tracking is now housed on StudentAid.gov. This means borrowers can monitor the progress of their student loan forgiveness no matter their loan servicer and do not have to modify to a different servicer to remain on course.
“For the first time, borrowers can now manage all aspects of their PSLF program on StudentAid.gov rather than navigating to a service provider’s website,” Kvaal said. “Because the PSLF program is administered entirely on StudentAid.gov, borrowers no longer need to be directed to a specific service provider just to participate in PSLF.”
Detailed data on student loan forgiveness for borrowers looking for PSLF
Borrowers who’ve no less than one previously processed PSLF employment certification—a form signed by the borrower and their employer confirming a qualifying period of employment—should now give you the chance to trace the progress of their student loan forgiveness on the brand new dashboard at StudentAid.gov. The information displayed includes the next:
- A PSLF progress statement showing the whole variety of qualifying payments made up to now, the variety of qualifying payments remaining, and an estimated date for student loan forgiveness.
- An in depth month-by-month breakdown showing months through which there are PSLF eligibility, months through which there may be eligibility, and months through which there isn’t a eligibility for debt relief.
- An inventory of confirmed PSLF employment periods, including details on when certain employment certifications were submitted by the borrower.
“With these new updates, borrowers will now also be able to track their progress toward PSLF on StudentAid.gov after their form has been processed, rather than having to navigate to a servicer’s website to access this important information,” Kvaal said. “Borrowers working toward PSLF will now be able to see their eligible and qualified payments on StudentAid.gov, an entirely new feature that will streamline and consolidate the process.”
Borrowers are encouraged to submit employment certifications to pave the best way for student loan forgiveness
To “credit” qualifying payments toward PSLF, borrowers must submit a PSLF Employment Certification form. The Department of Education recommends that borrowers use the PSLF Help Tool, a separate online system that enables the borrower and their employer to finish the shape electronically. Borrowers are strongly encouraged to make use of this digital process relatively than submitting a paper form because there may be less potential for errors and processing is more likely to be faster. And the PSLF Help Tool is now integrated with the brand new PSLF tracking system on StudentAid.gov.
“Borrowers can proceed to PSLF Help Tool— which was enhanced last spring to incorporate a digital signature and submission feature for faster processing — to submit their PSLF forms,” Kvaal said. “Once a form is submitted, borrowers can proceed to trace its progress through their dashboard on StudentAid.gov, where they’ll see if their form has been signed or processed by their employer. Most borrowers will even now experience faster processing of accomplished PSLF forms because processing is moreover automated.”
However, the Department of Education is currently focused on processing PSLF employment certifications submitted before May 2024, when the system was paused through the transition to StudentAid.gov. Once the department finishes processing those earlier submissions, officials will begin processing PSLF forms submitted during and after the pause, which ended July 1.
To date, nearly 1 million borrowers have been approved for student loan forgiveness under PSLF
According to the Biden administration, nearly a million borrowers have been approved for student loan forgiveness under the PSLF program since 2021.
“Since the beginning of the Biden-Harris administration, over 942,000 public sector workers have received the $68 billion in aid they are entitled to under the bipartisan Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLF),” Kvaal said in his blog post. “Before the Biden administration, only 7,000 people in total had received debt forgiveness through PSLF.”
The PSLF program was enacted through bipartisan laws in 2007, but many borrowers struggled to navigate this system’s complexities. Poor loan processing practices and inadequate oversight contributed to low approval rates, based on borrower advocates.
The latest approvals represent a 100-fold increase within the success rate for borrowers. And now that processing of PSLF applications has resumed, those approvals are expected to proceed to rise. But some Republicans are actually calling for this system to be abolished, saying it unfairly favors high earners, although borrowers who work in nonprofit or government agencies typically earn lower than their counterparts within the private sector.
Other student loan forgiveness programs are to be improved
The Department of Education also plans to streamline other federal student loan forgiveness programs and integrate them into StudentAid.gov in the same manner.
“We are making changes to simplify your web experience for federal student loans and grants,” the Department of Education said in a Notice earlier this 12 months. “These changes will eventually allow you to manage your federal student loans and grants entirely on StudentAid.gov,” whatever the borrower’s specific loan servicer. “The first changes began in March 2024, and the rest will be phased in over the next few years.”
Next, the department is predicted to deal with the Totally and Permanently Disabled Relief Program, a debt relief program for borrowers who’re unable to have interaction in sustained gainful employment because of a medical impairment.
