The U.S. Department of Education recently announced revisions to its Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. This program cancels the student debt of Americans who spend ten years in public service jobs, including firefighters and EMS personnel. Historically, the program has been challenging to navigate, which has created a small number of beneficiaries.
The Biden Administration has announced some significant changes to the program, which you can read by accessing the Fact Sheet: Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program Overhaul | U.S. Department of Education.
- A limited-time waiver to allow student borrowers to count payments from all federal loan programs or repayment plans toward forgiveness. This limited waiver applies to borrowers with direct loans or borrowers with other federal loans that submit a consolidation application for the Direct Loan Program while the waiver is in effect. The waiver will run through October 31, 2022.
- A simplification of what types of payments qualify for the PSLF program.
- Elimination of barriers for military service members, including the allowance of months spent on active duty to count toward the PSLF program.
- Automatically helping military service members and other federal employees to access the PSLF program.
- Review of denied PSLF applications to correct errors in PSLF processing.
- Simplification of the PSLF application process.
Please review the PSLF web page for more information about this program.
Ken LaSala is the IAFC’s Director of Government Relations & Policy.