How to Get Your Student Loans Forgiven (2024)

FAQs

How do you qualify for student loan forgiveness? ›

The PSLF Program forgives the remaining balance on your Direct Loans after you've made the equivalent of 120 qualifying monthly payments while working full time for a qualifying employer.

If your school closes while you're attending or shortly after you graduate, you could qualify for a federal student loan discharge of up to 100%. Qualifying loans include Direct Loans, FFEL Program Loans and Perkins Loans. Cancellation amount: Up to 100%.

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.

Your loan can be discharged only under specific circ*mstances, such as school closure, a school's false certification of your eligibility to receive a loan, a school's failure to pay a required loan refund, or because of total and permanent disability, bankruptcy, identity theft, or death.

Some programs have very specific requirements that make them difficult to qualify for, but income-driven repayment plans are open to most borrowers. The information below is about existing student loan forgiveness programs, where borrowers must qualify based on specific requirements.

If you received a Pell Grant in college and meet the income threshold, you will be eligible for up to $20,000 in debt relief. If you did not receive a Pell Grant in college and meet the income threshold, you will be eligible for up to $10,000 in debt relief.

After at least 20 years of student loan payments under an income-driven repayment plan — IDR forgiveness and 20-year student loan forgiveness. After 25 years if you borrowed loans for graduate school — 25-year federal loan forgiveness.

Since the White House made changes to PSLF, about 871,000 Americans have received student loan forgiveness through the program, the Biden administration said.

After you make your 120th qualifying monthly payment for PSLF, you'll need to submit the PSLF form to receive loan forgiveness. You must be working for a qualifying employer at the time you submit the PSLF form.

What student loans are not eligible for forgiveness? Private student loans, by definition, are private and are not eligible to be forgiven. These are loans the borrower owes to student loan providers and not the federal government.

How long does it take to know if you re approved for student loan forgiveness? ›

A final review of your account will be done to process forgiveness, which will take at least 90 business days. You are required to continue making payments while your form is being processed, unless your account is in a forbearance status.

In most cases, you'll get a refund for any overpayments beyond 20 or 25 years. The extra payments made on forgiven loans will be refunded back to the most recent of these three dates: The date you reached the required number of payments for IDR forgiveness – 20 or 25 years of monthly bills.

If you don't make your student loan payment or you make your payment late, your loan may eventually go into default. If you default on your student loan, that status will be reported to national credit reporting agencies. This reporting may damage your credit rating and future borrowing ability.

Do student loans go away after 7 years? While negative information about your student loans may disappear from your credit reports after seven years, the student loans will remain on your credit reports — and in your life — until you pay them off.

As long as your loans were in good standing at the time they were discharged and your accounts are being reported properly to the credit reporting bureaus, you won't see a huge difference in your score. On the other hand, you could see your score drop if your account wasn't in good standing prior to the discharge.

You must be a direct employee of a qualifying employer for your employment to qualify. This means that employees of contracted organizations, that are not themselves a qualifying employer, won't qualify for PSLF including government contractors and for-profit organizations.

You must make 120 on-time, full, scheduled, monthly payments on you Direct Loans. Only payments made after October 1, 2007, qualify. You must make those payments under a qualifying repayment plan.

To receive PSLF, you must make all 120 qualifying payments while working for a qualifying employer.