The below is taking from student aid which traditionally falls under the U.S. Department of Education which I cannot speak for nor work for at the present time. Completing this program was not just long term educational and economic plan; such policy millions of U.S. public servants rely on this promise by the government. If the honorable President J. Biden did anything right in addition to decades of distinguished service it was pushing through student loan forgiveness initiatives. Today's mantra is: Peace, love, & honor. - A.T. Yoda Brooks
" Executive Order About the PSLF Program
We are reviewing the recent Executive Order regarding the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program. There are no changes to PSLF currently, and borrowers do not need to take any action.
If you’re employed by a government or not-for-profit organization, you might be eligible for the PSLF Program. The PSLF Program forgives the remaining balance on your Direct Loans
To be considered for PSLF, you only need to submit a PSLF form. The easiest way to do this is by using the PSLF Help Tool. The PSLF Help Tool allows you to:
Check to see if your employer is already in our employer database.
Request that your employer’s eligibility be reviewed if it is not already in our database or has not yet had its eligibility determined.
Prepare and sign your PSLF form, and request certification and signature from your employer—all electronically.
Generate your PSLF form for manual signature and submission.
Top tip: Certify your employment every year and any time you change employers. This lets you confirm you’re on track toward forgiveness.
Qualifying for PSLF
To qualify for PSLF, you must
Note: Upon reaching 120 qualifying payments while preparing your final PSLF form certifying your employment, make sure that the employment period is checked as “still employed” or certified (signed) by your employer in the same month as your employment end date.
Qualifying Employment
Qualifying employment for PSLF isn’t about the specific job that you do for your employer—it’s about who you work for. Use our employer search tool to see if your employer qualifies for PSLF.
Which Employer Types Are Eligible
Eligible | Ineligible |
|---|
- U.S.-based government organizations at any level (federal, state, local, or tribal) – this includes the U.S. military
- Not-for-profit organizations that are tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code
- Other not-for-profit organizations that devote a majority of their full-time equivalent employees to providing certain qualifying public services
| - For-profit organizations, including for-profit contracted organizations
- Labor unions
- Partisan political organizations
|
Note: Serving as a full-time AmeriCorps or Peace Corps volunteer also counts as qualifying employment for the PSLF Program.
A Message for Employers
Have you received a request to certify and digitally sign an employee’s PSLF form? Borrowers seeking to benefit from PSLF are required to submit a PSLF form that verifies their employer and the dates of employment. Support your employee(s): learn how to complete the certification and signature process.
Full-time Employment
For PSLF, full-time employment is working for a qualifying employer(s) for a weekly average, alone or when combined, equal to at least 30 hours:
during the period being certified;
throughout a contractual or employment period of at least 8 months in a year, such as elementary and secondary school teachers, in which case the borrower is deemed to have worked full time for the entire year; or
determined by multiplying each credit or contact hour taught per week by at least 3.35 in non-tenure track employment at an institution of higher education.
Routine paid vacation or paid leave time provided by an employer, and leave taken under the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (29 U.S.C. 2612(a)(1)) is to be included when determining if you are working full-time.
Time spent on religious instruction, worship services, or any form of proselytizing as a part of your job responsibilities should be included when determining if you are working full-time.
However, time spent providing volunteer work or services for which you are not paid should not be included when determining if you are working full-time.
Eligible Loans
Any loan received under the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan (Direct Loan) Program qualifies for PSLF.
Eligible | Ineligible |
|---|
- Direct Subsidized Loans
- Direct Unsubsidized Loans
- Direct PLUS Loans
- Direct Consolidation Loans
| - Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL)
- Federal Perkins Loan (Perkins Loan)
- Student loans from private lenders
|
While a Direct PLUS loan made to a parent borrower is eligible for PSLF, it cannot be paid via a qualifying repayment plan (other than the 10-year standard repayment plan or a plan where the payment is equal or greater than the 10-year standard plan) unless it is first consolidated into a Direct Consolidation Loan.
FFEL and Perkins loans may become eligible if you consolidate them into a Direct Consolidation Loan.
Payment Credits on Consolidation Loans
If you consolidate your loans on or after September 1, 2024, the qualifying payments made on the Direct Loans (other loan types will not be considered) included in your consolidation loan will be credited to your consolidation loan using a weighted average of those payments. Borrowers are strongly encouraged to certify all their qualifying employment applicable to the loans before they are consolidated to ensure that weighted average is correctly applied.
For example, a borrower with 60 qualifying payments on a Direct Loan with a balance of $30,000 who consolidates their loan with another Direct Loan with a balance of $30,000 with zero qualifying payments will have a new qualifying payment count of 30 payments credited to the new consolidation loan.
As part of the payment count adjustment, ED will allow qualifying payments from all loans included in a Direct Consolidation Loan, including FFEL Program and Perkins loans, to contribute toward the qualifying payment count on the Direct Consolidation Loan. The payment count adjustment will not use a weighted average. See the payment count adjustment for additional details.
Because of recent changes to the law, borrowers will be able to separate joint consolidation loans. We’re working on implementing these changes and will provide updates on our Joint Consolidation Loan Separation News page.
Qualifying Payments
A qualifying monthly payment is one you make while employed full-time by a qualifying employer (after October 1, 2007) at any time during that month
while under a qualifying repayment plan, and
for the full amount due as shown on your bill; or
Note: as a result of the CARES Act, months that you were in repayment while the requirement to make a payment was paused, count as qualifying payments if you also certify your employment for the same period of time.
Your 120 qualifying monthly payments don’t need to be consecutive. For example, if you have a period of employment with a nonqualifying employer, you will not lose the payment counts for prior qualifying payments you made.
The best way to ensure that you are making on-time, complete payments is to sign up for automatic debit with your loan servicer.
Qualifying Repayment Plans
Qualifying repayment plans include all income-driven repayment (IDR) plans (plans that base your monthly payment on your income and household size) and the 10-year Standard Repayment Plan.
There are several IDR plans:
Income-Based Repayment (IBR) Plan
Income-Contingent (ICR) Plan
Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Plan
Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan
While payments made under the 10-year Standard Repayment Plan are qualifying payments, you might have to change to an IDR plan to benefit from PSLF. Under the 10-year Standard Repayment Plan, generally your loans will be paid in full once you have made 120 qualifying PSLF payments so there would be no balance left to forgive unless periods of qualifying deferments or forbearances are included in your 120 qualifying payments.
Not all borrowers qualify for every IDR plan. Your monthly payment amount could increase under these plans, depending on your income. You could pay off your loan before qualifying for forgiveness depending on the amount that you owe. Use the Loan Simulator to review your options.
The following repayment plans do not qualify for PSLF:
While these plans do not qualify under PSLF, these plans are eligible for the Temporary Expanded PSLF (TEPSLF) opportunity.
PSLF Process
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.
Whether you have made 120 qualifying payments, or not, you should fill out and submit the PSLF form annually or whenever you change employers. Otherwise, you’ll have to submit PSLF forms for each employer you worked for all at once. It could become difficult to contact those employers after such a long time or you could discover that some of your employers do not qualify.
Either way, we’ll use the information you provide on the form to let you know if you are making qualifying PSLF payments. This will help you determine if you’re on the right track as early as possible.
We will process your PSLF form and determine how many qualifying payments you made during the employment period on your form and you’ll receive a letter telling you the number of qualifying payments you have made. Log in to StudentAid.gov and go to My Aid in your Dashboard to see your PSLF progress.
The number of qualifying payments you have made will be updated only when you submit another PSLF form that documents a new period of qualifying employment.
Once your cumulative total of qualifying payments reaches 120, we will confirm your eligibility and work with your servicer to forgive your remaining balance.
You can submit the PSLF form digitally through the PSLF Help Tool or manually, using a paper form. Open the sections below to read more.
