96 Out of 28,000 Borrowers Approved for Public Service Loan Forgiveness … What Does This Mean for Everyone Else?

This post originally appeared on www.studentloanborrowerassistance.org 

By Persis Yu | October 05, 2018

It has been one year since student loan borrowers have been theoretically eligible to have their loans forgiven under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. And yet, out of the 28,000 borrowers who applied, only 96 have had their loans forgiven. That is less than 1 percent of applicants. That number is shocking and speaks volumes about the failures of a billion-dollar servicing industry. How could this happen?  First, servicers have failed to inform borrowers who requested certification for PSLF when they needed to consolidate their loans or change their payment plan to be eligible. Indeed, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) last month reported that of the approximately 1.2 million people who have requested to have their employment and loans certified as eligible for PSLF forgiveness, over 150,000 did not have any eligible loans and over 370,000 never made a single qualifying payment. Many of these errors could have been prevented had borrowers been properly counseled.

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Read the full post on NCLC’s Student Loan Borrower Assistance website here.

Persis Yu is a Staff Attorney at the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) and author at its Student Loan Borrower Assistance Project (SLBA).