The Dept of Education announced in April 2024 that they will begin to shift PSLF customer service to the Department of Education. This transition aims to speed up application processing and enhance customer service. After the improvements, all PSLF information will be centralized on StudentAid.gov, allowing borrowers to access real-time and accurate information about their payments and form processing. Borrowers will also be able to contact the Department directly with any questions, view all their PSLF information, and track their progress to forgiveness on a dashboard. The elimination of “specialty servicing” means borrowers can stay with their current servicer, reducing disruptions.
See below for the press release:
Next week, FSA will begin the next phase in years long work to improve the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. These improvements have been in the making for years and are an exciting and necessary step in transitioning key aspects of the PSLF program, including customer service, to the Department of Education. This will ultimately reduce the time it takes for a borrower’s application to process and provide a better customer service experience for borrowers enrolled in PSLF.
After the improvements, PSLF borrowers will have all of their PSLF information centralized on StudentAid.gov so that the Department can provide real-time and more accurate information on payment counts and form processing. They will also be able to call the Department’s contact center directly for any questions about PSLF and will have a simple way to view all of their PSLF information from beginning to end. Form submission will continue to take place through the PSLF Help Tool on StudentAid.gov (or via paper PSLF forms, if borrowers prefer) and borrowers can track their progress to forgiveness directly on a StudentAid.gov dashboard. The elimination of “specialty servicing,” where all PSLF borrowers are assigned to one loan servicer, also eliminates the need for disruptive account transfers for PSLF borrowers, allowing borrowers to stay with their current servicer and still access the program. Additionally, through new automations, borrowers will experience faster processing times for their PSLF forms.
In order to set up a new system that addresses longstanding problems with the administration of the PSLF program and ensures the timely and accurate transfer of PSLF data to the Department’s systems, the Department will refrain from reviewing PSLF form submissions for roughly a two-month period. From May 1 through July, borrowers will not be able to see their PSLF payment counts on MOHELA’s website, and any forms submitted for PSLF will not be reviewed. Borrowers will continue to receive regular servicing, including access to customer service and the ability to make payments. During the transition period, borrowers can also continue to submit PSLF forms to certify employment or apply for forgiveness. Forms will be reviewed as soon as the transition is complete and borrowers will receive an email notification once their form has been processed. Any applicable months spent in repayment will be applied after the pause ends. Borrowers who qualify for forgiveness during the pause can request a forbearance from their servicer and any additional payments made will be refunded to the borrower or applied to their other outstanding federal student loan debt.
The Biden-Harris Administration has already taken several steps to modernize PSLF and fix the program to provide forgiveness to borrowers who had dedicated their careers to public service. Since the start of the Biden Administration, nearly 900,000 public service workers have received the relief they are entitled to under the bipartisan law. Prior to the Biden Administration, only 7,000 people in total had received debt forgiveness through PSLF in the over 15 years since the program was put in place.
Some of the steps the Department has taken include:
· Creating the Limited PSLF Waiver: In October 2021, the Department created the limited PSLF waiver opportunity that allowed borrowers to receive credit for past periods of repayment that otherwise would not qualify for PSLF. Though this opportunity ended in October 2022, the Department has created permanent changes to the program through regulations that will benefit borrowers.
· PSLF Employer Search: Prior to President Biden taking office, there was no easy way for borrowers to determine whether their employer qualified for PSLF. Borrowers had to log into their StudentAid.gov account and navigate through the PSLF Help Tool process. In 2022, the Department made available an employer search functionality on StudentAid.gov so all users could determine whether their employer qualifies for PSLF and learn what next steps they may need to take.
· Digital Signature and Submission Functionality: Last year, the Department implemented improvements to the PSLF Help Tool that, for the first time, let borrowers complete the entire PSLF application process online. Prior to this update, borrowers had to print their PSLF form, obtain employer signatures on paper, and mail or fax the application with their wet signature. Allowing borrowers to submit e-signatures for both themselves and their employers not only streamlined the process for borrowers, but also significantly reduced processing time. This update also made it possible for borrowers to digitally track the status of their PSLF form by logging in to their StudentAid.gov account.
· Final Regulations to Expand and Improve PSLF: The Department has also released final regulations focused on streamlining and improving the rules for major debt relief programs, including PSLF, to provide long-term improvements for borrowers.
The updates to PSLF are the next step in improving the loan system to make it easier for PSLF borrowers to receive the forgiveness they are owed. By centralizing PSLF at the Department, borrowers will have a more streamlined, pleasant experience that will ultimately deliver them the relief they are owed more quickly.
We have already approved a total of $62.8 billion in relief for nearly 900,000 borrowers. Our nation’s teachers, nurses, firefighters – and other dedicated public servants – are finally receiving the relief they have earned.