In October 2023, the U.S. Department of Education disclosed that MOHELA failed to send monthly student loan bills to 2.5 million borrowers, resulting in 800,000 borrowers missing a monthly payment.
Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Updates
As of July 1, 2024, the PSLF program has successfully transitioned from MOHELA and now is fully managed by ED on StudentAid.gov. For all inquiries surrounding your PSLF discharge and any associated refunds, visit StudentAid.gov.
You are being placed into a forbearance because your servicer is not currently able to bill you at the amount required by a recent court order. The court order is preventing the Department from offering the SAVE Plan while litigation continues.
On September 4, 2024, California student borrowers filed a lawsuit alleging that the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority (MOHELA) failed to implement student loan discharges ordered by the Department of Education.
Loan forgiveness and discharge options are limited on private loans and differ from federal loans. Please call us to discuss eligibility for forgiveness or discharge options for private loans. Complete a forgiveness or discharge application and return it to us.
In 2024, Navient transferred what was remaining in its portfolio to the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority (MOHELA).
If you work in certain public service jobs and have made 120 payments on your Direct Loans, you may be eligible to have your loans forgiven. If some or all of your payments were not made on a qualifying repayment plan for PSLF, you may be able to receive loan forgiveness under a temporary opportunity.
MOHELA has announced that it will be transitioning to a new loan servicing platform in order to better serve borrowers with federal student loans. If you are a borrower who has loans currently serviced by MOHELA, your loans are not being transferred or sold.
The department first implemented the forbearance in August 2024 due to ongoing litigation between the department and seven states challenging the debt cancellation effort's legality. The plan is under an injunction preventing the department and servicers from forgiving loans.
You don't get reported when you're in forbearance. During the on-ramp period (through Sept. 30, 2024), we automatically put your loan in a forbearance for the payments you missed. Here's what this means: Your account was no longer considered delinquent and was made current.
Federally-Owned Loans Serviced by MOHELA
We offer self-service tools and resources to help you navigate through the student loan and repayment process with confidence: make payments, change repayment plans, explore options and get help.
These affected borrowers have been placed on administrative forbearance until 2024. Your loan payments will be paused, and no late fees or penalties will accrue. Additionally, the interest rate on your loans will be adjusted to 0% during this period.
Many borrowers who have MOHELA as a student loan servicer have gotten messages about being on administrative forbearance. If you're one of these borrowers, it's likely due to the legal battles over the SAVE program. Some borrowers report that their forbearance will last until 2040.
MOHELA is Here to Help Student Loan Borrowers Manage Repayment. As the federal contractor that services your federally owned loans on behalf of the U.S. Department of Education (ED), Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA), MOHELA is here to help you manage the repayment of your federal loans.
Navient served as a federal student loans servicer in the past, but it has faced legal allegations of loan mismanagement in recent years. The company stopped servicing most federal student loans in December 2021. In July 2024, Navient began transferring its remaining student loan servicing portfolio to MOHELA.
“The Department found that MOHELA failed to meet its basic obligation by failing to send billing statements on time to 2.5 million borrowers — some within only seven days of their payment date — and over 800,000 borrowers being delinquent on their loans as a result,” the Department said in a press release.
MOHELA is changing the backend processing system
In the background, MOHELA is leaving their long-time servicer processing technology called COMPASS. This is a legacy system from FedLoan/PHEAA. They're moving to a new system that Aidvantage and EdFinancial use, which hopefully will streamline servicer performance.
As of July 1, 2024, the PSLF program has successfully transitioned from MOHELA and now is fully managed by ED on StudentAid.gov. For all inquiries surrounding your PSLF discharge and any associated refunds, visit StudentAid.gov.
Any borrowers with loans that have accumulated eligible time in repayment of at least 20 or 25 years will see automatic forgiveness, even if they are not currently on an IDR plan.
The department is moving PSLF servicing from MOHELA to the StudentAid.gov platform. During this transition — which began on May 1 — borrowers will lose all access to their PSLF data, including details on qualifying PSLF payments.
As of July 2024, the PSLF Program is now fully managed by the Department via StudentAid.gov, rather than by a single loan servicer, making it easier for borrowers to track their progress toward forgiveness.
There will be a pause in processing for all PSLF forms while we transition the program to ED. Beginning on May 1, 2024, you are no longer able to access your PSLF progress, certified employment, or payment counts on MOHELA's borrower portal.
MOHELA. The Higher Education Loan Authority of the State of Missouri (MOHELA) is the first nonprofit federal student loan servicer to make it onto our list, narrowly squeaking ahead of Nelnet. Here's why. The more complexity a servicer is asked to deal with, the more likely they are to mess up.
Call MOHELA
Call 888.866. 4352 (Toll Free) or 636.532. 0600 (International) , to speak with one of our Student Loan Counselors.