When President Biden first took office in 2021, approval rates for PSLF were dismal, hovering in the one to two percent range. Only a few thousand borrowers had actually received student loan forgiveness under the program.
As of mid-July 2023, approximately 662,000 borrowers have qualified for forgiveness under the limited PSLF waiver.
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.
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.
59% of denied applications were rejected due to too few qualifying payments. 26% of denied applications were due to missing information. As of November 2020, $118.5 billion was the total outstanding balance of borrowers eligible for PSLF.
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.
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.
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%.
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.
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.
Your remaining balance after you make 120 qualifying payments and apply for PSLF is the amount you'll have forgiven. Ultimately, the amount forgiven depends on your income, family size, and loan balance. While you're enrolled in one of our IDR plans, the amount you pay each month is determined by your income.
Current PSLF numbers aren't any better. 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.
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.
If you work full time for a government or nonprofit organization, you may qualify for forgiveness of the entire remaining balance of your Direct Loans after you've made 120 qualifying payments—i.e., at least 10 years of payments. To benefit from PSLF, you need to repay your federal student loans under an IDR plan.
How long will it take for me to receive a refund after getting Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF)? Payments are returned as they were received (e.g., electronic payment or check). They are typically processed in one to two weeks after discharge is complete.
If you have not consolidated your Direct Loans, you can buy back months starting with Oct. 2007, when the PSLF program was established by law. If you have Direct consolidation loans, you can buy back starting with whichever is most recent: Oct. 2007 or the earliest disbursement date of your Direct Consolidation Loan.
Because you have to make 120 qualifying monthly payments, it will take at least 10 years before you can qualify for PSLF.
25% of rejected PSLF applications were rejected on grounds that the applicant had not entered all necessary information in their application.
Does my income level determine my eligibility for Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF)? There is no income requirement to qualify for PSLF.
This includes employers such as the U.S. military, public elementary and secondary schools, public colleges and universities, public child and family service agencies, and special governmental districts (including entities such as public transportation, water, bridge district, or housing authorities).
One of the primary requirements of the program is that a borrower make 10 years' worth of payments (120 on-time payments). But according to the Department's data, 80% of Direct Loan borrowers who were rejected for PSLF didn't have a loan that entered repayment 10 years ago.
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.
The Department of Education denied 98% of PSLF applications between November 2020 and October 2021. Some borrowers discovered they weren't eligible for forgiveness after making years of payments working in what they thought were qualifying positions.