A forgiven loan will have a zero balance and a status of ``paid-in-full'' under My Aid on the FSA site. Call MOHELA, tell them FSA shows over 120, and request administrative forbearance while the forgiveness is processing.
PSLF counts will continue to be adjusted each month until the IDR counts for all federally held FFEL Program and Direct Loans are adjusted in 2024. Your student loan servicer(s) will notify you directly after your forgiveness is processed.
After you've reached 120 payments and all other PSLF requirements are met, you must request forgiveness of your remaining loan balance using the PSLF form. After this request is made, a final review of your account will be performed to process forgiveness, which will take about 60 business days.
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.
In July 2024, AFT sued MOHELA for a wide range of unlawful practices, including illegally executing a “call deflection” scheme to deny service to borrowers who need help.
The initial success rate was about 0.5%, and now it's above 1% only a couple of years later. You might think that's still ridiculous, but it shows the exponential path to a 50% PSLF success rate that will happen over time and lead to more student loan forgiveness on borrowers' loans.
Loans serviced by MOHELA? If you faxed or mailed your PSLF form to MOHELA it may take up to 14 days for your mohela.com account to note that the form was received. Please allow at least 90 business days for your form to be processed.
If you have loans that have been in repayment for more than 20 or 25 years, those loans may immediately qualify for forgiveness. Borrowers who have reached 20 or 25 years (240 or 300 months) worth of eligible payments for IDR forgiveness will see their loans forgiven as they reach these milestones.
Student loans disappear from credit reports 7.5 years from the date they are paid in full, charged-off, or entered default. However, education debt can reappear if you dig out of default with consolidation or loan rehabilitation. Student loans can have an outsized impact on your credit score.
From July 1, 2022, through April 30, 2024, MOHELA served as the interim PSLF servicer and processed the largest amount of forgiveness—nearly $55 billion for 737,000 individual borrowers—by an FSA contractor in the history of the program.
What types of student loans does MOHELA service? MOHELA services federal student loans, including all loans being paid off with the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. MOHELA is also the loan servicer for some private student loan companies, like SoFi and Laurel Road.
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.
However, if you're seeking a refund from MOHELA, you can expect the first check to arrive within 90 business days, and the rest within 60 days. Also note that you'll likely receive multiple refund checks rather than a single refund.
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.
A final review of your account will be done to process forgiveness, which will take at least 90 business days. You're required to continue making payments while your form is being processed, unless your account is in a forbearance status.
You can now see your progress toward PSLF on the My Aid section of your Dashboard when you log in to StudentAid.gov using your StudentAid.gov account username and password combination (sometimes called an FSA ID). The display will show your loan details, payment history (for PSLF months), and employment certification.
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.
As of mid-July 2023, approximately 662,000 borrowers have qualified for forgiveness under the limited PSLF waiver.
The PSLF application process can take a few months. It may take longer if you haven't been submitting regular PSLF Forms, or shorter. During the wait, you have the option of continuing to make payments or putting your loans into forbearance.
If your account is past due, your payment status, including late and missed payments, as well as default, may be reported. Late or missed payments or defaults reflected on your consumer credit report may adversely affect your consumer credit rating.
When you are enrolled less than half time at your school, you will enter your six-month grace period (for Subsidized and Unsubsidized Direct Loans) when you should prepare to start making payments.
As part of its long-term vision for a new online environment for borrowers, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) will begin transitioning the servicing of the PSLF Program and the TEACH Grant Program from its sole interim PSLF servicer, MOHELA, to ED via StudentAid.gov beginning May 1, 2024.