You did everything right. You worked for a nonprofit. You made the payments. You followed every confusing instruction the government threw your way. But thanks to a new rule buried in the fine print of Executive Order 14235, you could lose Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) credit—retroactively—just because of where you work. Not what you …
Let’s not sugarcoat it: If you were counting on student loan forgiveness through Income-Based Repayment (IBR), you’ve just been thrown into limbo. The Education Department hit pause on all IBR discharges—no timeline, no guarantees, just a vague promise they’ll get back to it “once they figure things out.” Sound familiar? Let’s break down what’s really …
The Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program was established in 2007 to provide debt relief to nonprofit and government agency employees. The program’s goal was to forgive the student loans of borrowers after they made 120 qualifying payments (10 years of payments). However, the program’s approval rate was low, with only around 7,000 borrowers approved …
The U.S. Department of Education (Department) released final regulations that streamline and improve the rules for major targeted debt relief programs. The regulations expand eligibility, remove barriers to relief, and encourage automatic discharges for borrowers eligible for loan relief because their school closed, they have a total and permanent disability, or their loan was falsely …
In April 2022, the Department announced one-time improvements to address historical inaccuracies in the count of payments that qualify toward forgiveness under IDR and practices by loan servicers to put borrowers into forbearance in violation of Department rules. As a result of these past failures, borrowers who were in repayment for 20 or 25 years or …
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau published information in the Federal Register today that shows how screwed up student loan programs are. The data and facts released are enough to make you give up hope the student loan programs can ever be fixed. Indeed not fixed with one-time forgiveness. I will do my best to summarize …
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a special edition of Supervisory Highlights on recent examination findings covering the practices of student loan servicers, and schools that lend to students directly. The exams found that these schools had improper blanket policies of withholding transcripts to force students to make payments. These findings come after the CFPB announced earlier …
Question: Dear Steve, I went to college and was offered PSLF loan forgiveness for ten years of public service, which I started in 2011 and still work for the Commonwealth. I have filled out paperwork since they have these new programs that I shouldn’t have to split for. I have already full filled 120 payments …
The Department of Education announced a set of proposed changes to federal student loan programs. It is interesting to note what is missing here. The two biggest fixes that are needed are the restoration of the discharge of student loan debt in bankruptcy as a regular debt and a fix for the spousal consolidation loan …
Question: Dear Steve, I work in a public non-profit and currently have federal and private (Navient) student loans. I am in the PSLF program but still have about five years to go. Is there any talk by the federal government (or anyone else) about requiring private student loan companies to participate in a program similar …