Can I Still Apply for Student Loan Forgiveness? Yes, Here’s How (2024)

FAQs

Can I Still Apply for Student Loan Forgiveness? Yes, Here’s How? ›

For PSLF you can apply any time after making 120 qualifying payments. Teacher Loan Forgiveness requires an application after five consecutive years of service. For IDR forgiveness, you need to recertify each year by the annual deadline which varies depending on when you switched to IDR.

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.

Many student loan borrowers have an opportunity to receive full student loan cancellation or more credit towards cancellation. The U.S. Department of Education will conduct a one-time adjustment this summer , but you may need to take steps to qualify. The deadline to act is June 30, 2024. Here's what you need to know.

Complete the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Form With the PSLF Help Tool. Use the PSLF Help Tool to confirm you're eligible and fill out and submit your PSLF form.

From Oct. 6, 2021, through Oct. 31, 2022, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) implemented a change to PSLF program rules for a limited time as a result of the COVID-19 national emergency. As of mid-July 2023, approximately 662,000 borrowers have qualified for forgiveness under the limited PSLF waiver.

Borrowers with only undergraduate debt would qualify for forgiveness if they first entered repayment 20 years ago (on or before July 1, 2005), and borrowers with any graduate school debt would qualify if they first entered repayment 25 or more years ago (on or before July 1, 2000).

You're not eligible for federal student loan forgiveness programs if you have private loans, but there are other strategies for managing private loan debt. NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.

Borrowers who need to consolidate their loans via the federal Direct consolidation program to become eligible for student loan forgiveness under the IDR Account Adjustment should do so by December 31, 2023, according to the Education Department. So there is still time to act.

Your loans should automatically qualify for forgiveness after you've spent 20 or 25 years in repayment. Reach out to your loan servicer about any steps you may need to take.

If you've received forgiveness from a certain student loan forgiveness program, you won't be able to apply for the same one again. However, with meeting certain criteria, there are other forgiveness programs for which you can apply even if you have already received forgiveness.

How to get approval for student loan forgiveness? ›

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., 10 years of payments.

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.

UCPath accepts PSLF eForms submitted via DocuSign from the studentaid.gov PSLF site. The email address for UCPath is ucpath@universityofcalifornia.edu.

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.

Today's announcement brings the total loan forgiveness approved by the Biden-Harris Administration to $167 billion for 4.75 million Americans. Thanks to this Administration's efforts more than one out of every 10 federal student loan borrowers has now been approved for some debt relief.

The Administration's new plan would cancel debt for all borrowers with only undergraduate student debt who entered repayment 20 or more years ago and cancel loans for borrowers with any graduate student debt that first entered repayment 25 or more years ago.

The remaining unpaid balance of loans is forgiven after 20 or 25 years. Pay As You Earn (PAYE)—Payments are generally 10% of your discretionary income, but never more than the 10 year Standard repayment plan amount. The remaining unpaid balance of loans is forgiven after 20 years.

The Department of Education offers several student loan forgiveness programs. You may qualify for these programs even if you didn't graduate. The most popular and widely known forgiveness program is the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, better known by its acronym PSLF.

As a full-time government employee (federal, state, local, or tribal), you're eligible for PSLF. You could even be eligible for PSLF as a government contractor, so long as you're directly employed by a qualifying employer — such as a nonprofit — that is doing work under a government contract.