Dear Friend,

If you have a federal student loan and are employed by a U.S. federal, state, local, or tribal government or a not-for-profit organization, you may be able to benefit from temporary changes made by the Biden Administration to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. These changes, called the “Limited PSLF Waiver,” are helping borrowers across the nation more easily have their loans forgiven – but if you haven’t already applied for PSLF, you must submit a PSLF form and/or consolidate your non-Direct federal student loans by October 31, 2022, to qualify for the benefit.

The PSLF program forgives the remaining balance on your Direct Loans after you have made 10 years/120 qualifying monthly payments under a qualifying repayment plan while working full-time for a qualifying employer. The current Limited PSLF Waiver allows more borrowers to be eligible for PSLF credit, even if they had been told previously that they had the wrong loan type or the wrong repayment plan. For example:

  • The waiver gives borrowers credits for past periods of repayment on federal student loans – even loan types that would otherwise not qualify for PSLF (i.e., Federal Family Education Loans (FFEL), Federal Perkins Loans, Federally Insured Student Loans (FISL), National Defense Student Loans (NDSL), and other types of federal loans that are not Direct Loans) - as long as the borrower consolidates these loans into a federal Direct Loan by October 31.
  • Past periods of repayment will now count whether or not you made that payment on time, for the full amount due, or on a qualifying repayment plan. The Department of Education will even count certain periods of forbearance toward PSLF.

You can learn more about the waiver here.

There’s no specific application for the waiver – you will just need to submit a PSLF form by October 31 if you haven’t already done so. If you have non-Direct federal student loans, you’ll also need to consolidate into a Direct Loan before October 31. Once you have submitted a PSLF form and (if necessary) consolidated into the Direct Loan program, you will be automatically opted into the waiver and will start accruing credit towards PSLF.

To take advantage of the waiver, you need to take the following steps:

  1. Register for an FSA ID if you don’t already have one at this link.
  2. Check to see if you work or previously worked for a qualifying employer using the PSLF Help Tool at this link.
  3. If you have Federal Family Education Loans (FFEL), Perkins loans, or other federal student loans including FISL or NDSL, you will need to apply to consolidate your loans into a Direct Consolidation Loan to qualify for PSLF. You can consolidate your loans if you need to at this link.
  4. Submit a PSLF form to certify employment for PSLF that you want credit for through the waiver. You can find the PSLF form at this link.

a. In the PSLF Help Tool, it’s important to use the appropriate Federal Employer Identification Number (EIN). Please check with your HR department for the correct EIN for your employer. You can also find it on your W-2.

If you previously applied for PSLF and were denied, we encourage you to try again. If you previously applied for PSLF, we encourage you to update your employment certification by completing a PSLF form.

Remember, you need to take the above steps BEFORE OCTOBER 31, 2022, to qualify for the Limited PSLF Waiver. Just a few minutes of your time may save you thousands of dollars on your student loans!

Sincerely,

Judy Chu, PhD
Member of Congress

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