Of the 2 million folks who have applied for PSLF and met employment requirements since 2020, fewer than 1% have actually received forgiveness under the original setup.
How difficult? It is as difficult as: having the right kind of loans; working qualifying job(s) for 10 years; while paying your loans back on an income-driven repayment plan.
Most denials are for not making enough qualifying payments.
These actions made today's milestone possible: as of October 2024, over 1 million public service workers have had their debt discharged via PSLF and Temporary Extended PSLF (Figure 1).
A lot of people apply for PSLF, but the odds of actually having your loans forgiven through this program are extremely low. Between September 2020 and June 2023, almost 4 million PSLF applications were processed, and only 19,218 of them resulted in forgiveness—that's only 0.5%.
The later-adopted Temporary Expanded Public Service Loan Forgiveness program also has a strikingly high ninety-four percent plus denial rate for the over 29,000 applications for debt relief filed and processed as of that date.
One of the notable drawbacks of PSLF for doctors is the required commitment. To be eligible for forgiveness, you must make 120 qualifying payments, which essentially means 10 years of service in a qualifying organization.
As of mid-July 2023, approximately 662,000 borrowers have qualified for forgiveness under the limited PSLF waiver.
Important: If your employer is a for-profit organization, a labor union, or a partisan political organization, it isn't an eligible PSLF employer regardless of the kinds of public services it might provide.
Typically it takes at least 2 months to process PSLF Forms. During the busiest PSLF Waiver periods, estimates were between four and six months. If you're still within those time periods, continue waiting. You can always go to the My Activity page on studentaid.gov to check the status.
Track Your PSLF form status and history
Once you've submitted a PSLF form, you can track its progress by logging in to StudentAid.gov using your account username and password and selecting “My Activity” in the dropdown menu under your name in the upper right-hand corner.
Because you have to make 120 qualifying monthly payments, it will take at least 10 years before you can qualify for PSLF. Important: You must still be working for a qualifying employer at the time you submit your form for forgiveness.
PSLF applications that were submitted were incomplete or didn't have all of the required information necessary to process the application. As newer reports were released, “missing information” continued to be the reason why 23% to 26% of PSLF applications were rejected through November 2020.
There is no income requirement to qualify for PSLF.
Don't forget to submit the PSLF form with your employment certification every year. If your PSLF form is approved for forgiveness, then you'll be notified that the entire remaining balance of your eligible Direct Loans will be forgiven, including all outstanding interest and principal.
11% of all PSLF and TEPSLF applications have been approved, according to June 2023 data from the Department of Education (673,077 approved for discharge among 6,147,812 total applications). Total discharges processed included: 19,218 for PSLF and 6,520 for Temporary Expanded PSLF.
First, the U.S. Department of Education (Department) approved 6,100 borrowers for $465 million through Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF). Second, the Department approved nearly 85,000 borrowers for $1.26 billion in relief based upon borrower defense findings.
Public Loan Forgiveness is great for those who work in the public sector. Try to utilize the PSLF program to pay off your student loan debt if you work in the public sector. However, many people won't qualify.
You must be a direct employee of a qualifying employer for your employment to qualify. This means that employees of contracted organizations, that are not themselves a qualifying employer, won't qualify for PSLF including government contractors and for-profit organizations.
To maximize your PSLF benefit, repay your loans on the Income-Based Repayment (IBR) Plan, the Pay As You Earn Repayment Plan, or the Income Contingent Repayment (ICR) Plan, which are three repayment plans that qualify for PSLF. PSLF is best under IBR, Pay As You Earn, or ICR.
It may initially lower your credit score as the forgiven debt could be reported as “income,” which may increase your overall income-to-debt ratio. However, over time, having fewer loans and lower debt could improve your credit score.
Any month when your scheduled payment under an income-driven plan is $0 will count toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness if you also are employed full-time by a qualifying employer during that month.
What will happen if my Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) application is approved? If you are approved for Public Service Loan Forgiveness, you'll be notified that the entire remaining balance of your eligible Direct Loans, including all outstanding interest and principal, will be forgiven.
If you've made more than 120 payments on your Direct Loans and qualify for PSLF, you should be eligible for a refund, according to StudentAid.gov. Refunded payments are typically based on one of the following, whichever is most recent: The date you reached 120 payments for PSLF.