With all of the excitement around federal student loan cancellation, we don’t want other federal student loan benefits to be overlooked. In particular, the deadline for the limited Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) waiver is quickly approaching. Borrowers who believe they may qualify under the waiver have until October 31, 2022 to consolidate their loans (if necessary) and submit their employment for certification.
What is the limited PSLF waiver?
The limited PSLF waiver offers a temporary path to counting certain payments towards PSLF that previously did not count. This does not change the requirement that payments need to have been made while working for a qualifying non-profit organization or government entity.
Who should look into the PSLF waiver?
Anyone with federal student loans who has worked for a non-profit or governmental organization as a full-time employee at any time since 2007 should look into whether they will benefit from the waiver.
While not everyone will benefit from it, it’s worth doing the research to make sure that you aren’t missing out on any payments that would count under the waiver. To verify if your current employer or any of your past employers qualify under the program, check the searchable database through the PSLF Help Tool.
What should you look for?
Types of loans
If you have FFEL or Perkins loans, that is a sign that you may benefit from the PSLF waiver. (If your loans are “direct” loans, they would already qualify under regular PSLF.) If you have FFEL or Perkins loans, you must consolidate your loans before the end of October to be eligible for the PSLF waiver.
Parent PLUS loans still do not qualify unless you can consolidate them with at least one other type of federal student loan by the PSLF waiver deadline.
Repayment plan
If you have at any time made payments on your federal student loans, those payments can count towards your qualifying payments, no matter which repayment plan you were on at the time. Under regular PSLF, only payments made under the standard 10-year repayment plan or an income-driven repayment plan count. This opens up payments made under the graduated repayment plan and extended repayment plan to count toward PSLF.
Payment history
Late payments and partial payments count towards PSLF under the temporary waiver.
Periods of forbearance and deferment
If your loans were in forbearance for 12 months in a row or 36 months total (prior to the start of COVID forbearance in March 2020), that time could count towards PSLF under the waiver. All months of deferment before 2013 and any months of economic hardship deferment after 2013 will be counted under the waiver.
Employment status at the time of application
Under the regular PSLF program, you must be employed by a non-profit when you submit your forgiveness application. Under the waiver, you can apply for forgiveness if you have your 120 qualifying payments, but you aren’t currently working for an eligible employer.
Not sure if you would benefit from the temporary PSLF waiver? Here is what to do:
-
Verify that your employment would count towards PSLF using the searchable database through the PSLF Help Tool
-
Check what types of loans you have by creating an account through StudentAid.gov or checking with your student loan servicer
-
If you have FFEL or Perkins loans, you must consolidate in order to benefit from the waiver
-
If you have Parent Plus loans, you must consolidate with another eligible loan
-
-
Submit a PSLF form using the PSLF Help Tool if you have eligible employment that you have not previously certified
-
If you have direct loans and have already certified all eligible employment, StudentAid.gov advises that you wait for automatic credit to be granted for any newly qualifying payments under the waiver
-
Check out StudentAid.gov’s guidance and FAQ’s on the topic
