If you’re a public servant — a teacher, a nonprofit worker, a public defender, a government worker, or another — you might have cheered when you heard about the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. This program, in theory, allows borrowers to make 10 years of income-driven payments on their loans and then have the rest forgiven.
But the program’s rules are complex — so much so that we have a whole training course dedicated to getting it right — and when the first borrowers became eligible for forgiveness 10 years after the program’s start in 2007, hardly anyone who applied for loan discharge was able to get it processed.
In fact, as of September 2018, only 206 people out of more than 40,000 applicants had had their loans forgiven.
Not good.
Why Was/Is PSLF So Hard to Qualify For?
Good question. This is a program that was started with good intentions. But many of the people it was supposed to help didn’t read and/or understand the fine print, and loan servicers didn’t help; it seems that many of them gave borrowers deliberate misinformation or failed to inform them of something that could have helped them.
Basically, to meet the original requirements, you needed to have a specific type of loan (or consolidate your existing loans in order to get the specific type of loan), to be on a specific type of repayment plan, to certify that your employer qualified as “public service” every single year, and to make 120 payments under these conditions (not 120 payments overall, or 10 straight years of payments, but 120/10 years of payments while having this kind of loan and working for this kind of employer).
That’s a lot to keep track of, and being in the wrong kind of payment plan in particular seems to have bitten a lot of people.
Plus, FedLoan Servicing, the only servicer that handles PSLF loans, is pretty terrible overall, which doesn’t help.
What Is Temporary Expanded Public Service Loan Forgiveness (TEPSLF)?
TEPSLF is, well, a temporary opportunity to access a (slightly) expanded eligibility pool for PSLF. It’s controversial right now because congressional Democrats are arguing that the Republican-controlled Department of Education hasn’t expanded the pool enough. Maybe it’ll expand further and maybe it won’t, but for the moment, the “expanded” part refers to the types of repayment programs that are eligible for forgiveness.
Where Did TEPSLF Come From?
Remember, it took 10 years for the first possible qualifiers to apply to have their loans forgiven, so that was in 2017. When news started to break that 99% of PSLF applicants were being denied due to not meeting requirements, it became a major scandal.
Due to a big push from Senator Elizabeth Warren and other student-debt advocates in Congress like senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Tim Kaine, the 2018 U.S. budget included a pot of $350 million to aid borrowers who hadn’t met the PSLF requirements, but would meet an “expanded” definition.
The money is finite, and will eventually run out — so it’s on a first come, first served basis. Hence, temporary. However, not much of it has been used so far due to another round of eligibility issues, so there’s a good chance that if you qualify, you’ll be able to use it.
Who Is Eligible? Part 1: Type of Repayment Plan
First of all, you should know that TEPSLF hasn’t gone so great so far. Nearly everyone who applied for it in 2018 was rejected — and I do mean nearly everyone. Only a couple hundred out of literally tens of thousands of applicants were accepted.
In other words, there’s still a lot of difficulty in getting your loans forgiven under the new rules. Before I go any further, here’s a link to the Department of Education’s TEPSLF website, which addresses some of these issues too.
The current focus of TEPSLF is on people who were in the wrong kind of repayment plan. Original-flavor PSLF required that borrowers be on one of the income-driven repayment plans: PAYE (Pay As You Earn), REPAYE (Revised Pay As You Earn), IBR (Income-Based Repayment), or ICR (Income-Contingent Repayment).
All of these plans tie the amount of your payments to your income, and since public service incomes are generally lower, it made sense that lots of PSLF applicants would be on one. But it turned out this often isn’t the case and lots of people were rejected for being on another payment plan.
TEPSLF expands the kind of eligible repayment plans. If you have been using a Graduated Repayment Plan, an Extended Repayment Plan, a Consolidation Standard Repayment Plan, or a Consolidation Graduated Repayment Plan, you’re now eligible as long as you meet all the other PSLF requirements.
Who Is Eligible? Part II: Procedure
It’s not just the kind of repayment plan you have though. You also have to go through a very specific procedure to have your loans forgiven under TEPSLF.
So here’s the skinny. In order to get access to TEPSLF:
- You must submit a PSLF application for forgiveness and have that application denied (even if you already know you’ll be denied, you have to do this anyway).
- The denial has to be because some of your payments were not made under a qualifying PSLF repayment plan (and not for any other reason).
- You have to have 10 years of certified qualifying employment.
- Your recent payments have to have been at least as much as they’d have been in a qualifying PSLF repayment plan.
- You have to have made 120 payments that qualify (they need to have been made after October 1, 2007; to not have been more than 15 days late; and to have been made while employed by a qualifying employer). If your loans were in a grace period, a deferment, or forbearance when you made a payment, it won’t qualify. Also, the payments need to have been made on the loan(s) you’re seeking forgiveness on. If you consolidated halfway through the 10 years, then the payments you made on the unconsolidated loans won’t count.
Then you can go on to apply for TEPSLF.
What Kinds of Loans Are Eligible?
As with PSLF, only Direct Loans qualify for TEPSLF. If you had other loans but were able to consolidate them into a Direct Loan, that’s ok, but only payments you made on the Direct Loan will count.
Parent PLUS loans, FFEL loans, Perkins Loans, and private loans are not eligible.
Direct Loans in default are also not eligible.
What Do I Need to Do?
First, if you haven’t already made 10 years of payments while working for an approved employer, applied for PSLF, and been denied, you’ll need to do all those things.
That means your first stop should probably be FedLoan Servicing to ensure that your employers have been certified.
Next, you’ll need to apply for PSLF and wait to be denied. The denial has to be because you were using the wrong repayment plan for part or all of your 120 payments.
Then you send the Education Department an email. No, really! You do! I assumed there was a form to fill out, but nope:
- Email TEPSLF@myfedloan.org.
- Subject line: “TEPSLF Request.”
- In the body of the email, use the sentence, “I request that the Education Department reconsider my eligibility for Public Service Loan Forgiveness.”
- Include the same name under which you submitted that PSLF request that got denied (if you’ve married, divorced, or changed your name for another reason in the meantime, include the old name in the email).
- Also include your date of birth in MM/DD/YYYY format.
Then, wait for FedLoan Servicing to reply to you. They’re required to confirm that you are eligible and to email you back with a determination. This might take several months (they say 60 to 120 days). You may be asked for additional information, especially about your income in the last 12 months, your family size, or your employer.
(They might want to know about your income or family size because they want to determine whether or not your recent payments were at least as much as they would have been on an income-based repayment program, which is one of the markers of eligibility for TEPSLF.)
If they do ask you for more info, move on it quickly, because you’ll need to provide it in 21 days or your request will be canceled.
If you’re denied, you may need to follow up with more information if you want to appeal. The denial ought to come with a reason and also an explanation of what you should do next. That may include submitting a PSLF application, making further payments (if you don’t have 10 eligible years’ worth), and/or getting your employer certified (which means following up with FedLoan Servicing and your employers during the 10-year period).
If you’re approved, that should be it. Your loans will be forgiven, along with any outstanding interest, and you can log into your account and see a $0.
What About Taxes?
This is a big deal! If your loans are forgiven under either PSLF or TEPSLF, the forgiveness amount is not considered taxable income.
Does This Actually Work for Anyone?
Like I said, the implementation of this program has been messy and contested. But it has worked for highly organized, persistent people who do meet all of these requirements. Here’s one story of a woman who not only got her loans forgiven, but got nine months of “overpayment” refunded to her. That ought to be inspirational!
One thing I really noted in that story is that while it’s really frustrating to deal with servicers, it can have benefits to keep pushing them. The woman in the story called her servicer maybe 20 times to check on things, insist that they look further into her situation, get documentation, and so on.
That sounds awful and it really sucks that it’s this challenging to access the program. But on the other hand, which would you rather do: call FedLoan Servicing 20 times or pay on your student loans for another 5 years when you don’t have to?
Here is another takeaway from that story: If you can afford it, it might help to hire a professional to assess your situation and help you make a plan. The woman in the story used a student loan lawyer. She still had to do a lot of the work of calling the servicer, etc., but it must have been comforting to have an expert on her side.
What Else Is Going on with PSLF?
As of April 2019, the Trump administration and several congressional Republicans have proposed eliminating it altogether.
Meanwhile, the major Democratic presidential contenders have mostly signaled support for a bill introduced by one of them, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, which would expand the types of eligible loans and payment plans permanently and reduce the payment period from 10 years to 5, among other things. (There are also some requirements for better information from the Education Department to students and an online application system that would be easier and clearer to use, etc.)
It definitely seems like PSLF has become a partisan issue, with Democrats trying to expand the program to more borrowers and Republicans trying to prevent borrowers from accessing it. This didn’t used to be the case — PSLF was signed into law by George Bush and the Obama education department didn’t exactly do a great job of keeping servicers from misbehaving — but unfortunately, it does seem now like the program has become a political football, meaning that its future probably depends a lot on who wins Congress and the presidency in 2020.
Robert Farrington is America’s Millennial Money Expert® and America’s Student Loan Debt Expert™, and the founder of The College Investor, a personal finance site dedicated to helping millennials escape student loan debt to start investing and building wealth for the future. You can learn more about him here.
He regularly writes about investing, student loan debt, and general personal finance topics geared towards anyone wanting to earn more, get out of debt, and start building wealth for the future.
He has been quoted in major publications including the New York Times, Washington Post, Fox, ABC, NBC, and more. He is also a regular contributor to Forbes.
Sam says
I just read about the lawsuit against the Dept of Education. Will I benefit from this lawsuit if I have all the same complaints ?
I have continued to pay on my loans but want to know if ( the lawsuit is won) the federal government will reimburse me for the payments plus interest?
Sam
Robert Farrington says
No, there will be no impact to you. There are many lawsuits against the Department of Education and/or the loan servicers, and all that will happen is structural reform.
Jennifer Wilbur says
I noted that you said “consolidated standard” and “consolidated graduated” – where are you seeing that the “consolidated extended” are not eligible? I am searching everywhere for this and cannot find anything in the law, as passed in the 2018 Omnibus that indicates they are not eligible and yet I’m now hearing (after spending 13 months paying a super high rate on an IDR) that what I was told 13 months ago is now wrong and I am not eligible for TEPSLF because I’m in an “extended fixed” plan – whatever that means. Any information appreciated. Public Service for 21 years – loan payments for longer!
Robert Farrington says
The extended plan is considered a “standard” plan – that’s why it’s not eligible. You need to get on one of these: Standard 10 year, IBR, PAYE, REPAYE, ICR for at least 12 months, then apply for TEPSLF.
Jennifer says
Thanks but I’m at the TEPSLF stage. Did the employee certification, 13 months on an IDR, and have been told that the “extended ‘fixed’ plan“ is not eligible for TEPSLF. I’m waiting for the official denial. I’m trying to get a copy of the administrative manual that the Department of ED gives to Fedloan. Two staffers that review TEPSLF said it doesn’t matter that I did the IDR for 13 months since I had a direct loan that didn’t qualify for TEPSLF. If it’s available somewhere short of submitting a FOIA request, it would be helpful. Thanks again.
Robert Farrington says
I’m confused as well then, because what you’re saying is:
– You had direct loans
– You had qualifying employment
– You were on an extended repayment plan (non-qualifying)
– 13 months ago, you switched to an IDR plan
– You’re now submitting your TEPSLF application
If that’s correct, then you’re doing the correct things. Based on what I’m seeing, it takes about 2 months to process a TEPSLF application.
Jennifer says
I will let you know what happens. The loans were consolidated extended “fixed” and not graduated. They asserted that is the difference but I can find nothing that makes that distinction. They have told me it’s in their guidance from D of E. We shall see.
Kelly says
I am in this situation as well. I have 14 years working for the federal government and have been making payments on my consolidated extended loans for 11 years and 11 months.
Jennifer – Have you had any luck on the guidance? I do not want to switch to an income based repayment plan for a year and be stuck!
Robert Farrington says
If your employment and loans qualify (check the loans – 14-year-old loans are likely not Direct loans), it would make sense to do it. But if your loans don’t qualify, it’s moot.
You can see the emergency student loan options for coronavirus here if you need more assistance.
Kelly says
My loans are a direct subsidized consolidation loan and a direct unsubsidized consolidation loan. I consolidated in 2010. I just do not want to switch to an income base repayment plan and have the same problems Jennifer is having since all of my payments so far have been on the extended fixed repayment plan.
Melissa Logan says
Can I switch to a income driven plan and then apply for TEPSLF? I have over 120 payments on extended plan but do not qualify for PLSF. I am just wondering if I switch over for 12 months in a income driven plan if I will qualify at that time?
Robert Farrington says
Yes, you need to switch for and be on an income-driven plan for 12 months at least. Also, you still need to meet the other criteria: Direct Loans and certified qualifying employment.
Scott says
Robert, I would be very interested in learning why FFEL loans don’t qualify for PSLF. In 2007, when the PSLF program was started, FFEL loans made up 80% of all new student loans. In fact, Direct Loan origination was voluntary and many schools nationwide didn’t even participate in the Direct Loan program until the FFEL program was eliminated in 2009. For those of us who consolidated our student loan debt in the early 2000s, there was virtually no way for us to know that there were alternatives to FFEL and that the payments we were making after October 2, 2007 wouldn’t qualify for forgiveness. Couple with that the fact that program guidance on PSLF was more or less nonexistent until 2015 or so. In short, why would Congress implement a loan forgiveness program that 80% of debtors wouldn’t qualify for? There seems to be more to this story than we are being told.
Robert Farrington says
I can’t speak to how the sausage was made sadly. However, starting in 2007, all future loans were 100% Direct Loans. And like all student loan programs (to-date at least), they aren’t retroactive, but only for future borrowers.
Scott says
Not to pick nits, but loans were originated through the FFEL program up until 2010, well after PSLF was conceived. Interestingly enough, the Department of Education bought FFEL loans from the lenders in 2008, making them federally-held debts (as if the federal guarantee backing FFEL loans wasn’t enough).
This makes me wonder if Congress intended for FFEL loans to be eligible for forgiveness under PSLF. I’m not a blogger or investigative reporter, just a dude with massive student loan debt who works for a small city and who made payments on the wrong kind of loan for 10 years while my servicer (NelNet) assured me that I was eligible for forgiveness. So far, if there are news sources that touch on the FFEL/DL/PSLF nexus, I haven’t seen any. There seems to be meat in that “sausage,” but I’m not sure how to make it.
Travis says
This is good info, thanks for sharing. My wife has a DL subsidized loan with a repayment start date of 12/2004, and a DL unsubsidized from the same time and we’ve been making payments since that time (clearly over 10 years). However, those repayments are under the “Extended Level” plan so from my understanding don’t qualify for PSLF right? However this article give me hope that they can qualify under TEPSLF. The following bullet point confuses me though “Your recent payments have to have been at least as much as they’d have been in a qualifying PSLF repayment plan.” If our payment is not as much as it would be under an Income based plan, do I need to switch to a REPAYE plan or an ICR plan for a year before I apply for PSLF or send the email to TEPSLF?
Robert Farrington says
Yes, you will likely need to switch to a qualifying repayment plan for 12 months, and then apply for TEPSLF.
Make sure your loan is a direct loan too – while it’s possible, it’s very rare to have a direct loan prior to October 2007.
Amanda says
So my situation is that I consolidated my loans under Fedloan Serving (different name previously?) in May 2012. So none of my payments prior to May of 2012 are counting. Is there no way to get around that? I have pretty much always been on an income based repayment plan, to be safe I’d say since 2010, but more likely 2009 and have working at the same non profit since 2005, full time since 2008 or 2009.
My loans previously would have maybe been through Sallie Mae? And the education department maybe? I’m sure I have the documentation still on where they came from, but they were from whomever was common.
Thank you- I do have an email into Fedloan Servicing about this matter as well, but thought I would ask here too. Because I wasn’t sure if TEPSLF would be helpful in my situation or not.
Robert Farrington says
Correct, when you consolidate, you take out a new loan that replaces your old loan. All the old loans are gone and don’t count for anything. Only your new consolidation loan will start counting for things.
However, if you had old loans with Sallie Mae, chances are they wouldn’t have counted anyway – since they were likely FFEL loans, not Direct Loans. And FFEL loans also don’t count for TEPLSF. Only repayment plan issues count for it.
Amanda says
Thank you!
Carlea says
Hi. Last year I applied for PSLF (denied because I was on a graduated repayment plan) and the TEPSLF (denied because my most recent payment and the payment I made 12 months prior were not equal to or more than what I would have paid on an income based repayment plan). So, I immediately requested to be put on an income based repayment plan. In August of 2020 I will have made 13 months of payments on this income based repayment plan. Can I then re-apply for TEPSLF? Wondering if I can apply again now that I know I will have met all the criteria for TEPSLF. Has anyone heard of anyone having success after taking this route? Thank you!
Robert Farrington says
Yes, that’s the correct path if you meet the other requirements (loan type and employment).
Porter says
If I have 10 plus years of employment and the loan type will I qualify for TEPSLF?
Robert Farrington says
Maybe. Does your employment qualify? Loan Type qualify? And what payment plan have you been on this past 10 years? Why haven’t you done normal PSLF? Were you rejected for some reason?
Loraine says
I am very confused about this FFEL issue, I read in the literature that an FFEL consolidation does count? I have been paying my loans for over 18 years and have 10 years of qualified service, yet Fedloan Servicing certified my employment but at the time I applied for PSFL I had exactly 10 years of employment was on graduated payment (2/2018 applied) never got a denial letter and they assumed my loans from Navient to start the process of the forgiveness and then they never responded, meanwhile I was out of work for 2 years and just started back for 6 months. I did a consolidation in 2012 to a direct consolidation again this was not available in 2003 when first consolidated them. I have made payments the entire time and have the work for 10 years. My issue is that they should no be able to not include the payments from 10/2007 to 9/2012 when I consolidated to a direct loan. These were an FFEL consolidation from 2007 to 2012. I have done a deep dive into this and the wording is very circular. I want to know how to force their hand on this. I have proof of the payments and I am certified under the employment. I was not employed at the time that I applied but again they did not come back with that being the reason..they never responded. I think I was disqualified due to the graduated payment plan but now TEPSFL includes that type of payment. What do you suggest I do??? No one answers the phone at FedLoan Servicing.
Robert Farrington says
No, only payments post-consolidation (as a Direct Loan) will count for PSLF.
FFEL Loans do not count (and TEPSLF is for repayment plan type issues, not loan issues).
Everything from ED about FFEL states you can consolidate your FFEL to a Direct Consolidation loan in order to qualify (they said this with many programs). But anything to do with that old FFEL loan doesn’t qualify and doesn’t count for anything.
My suggestion is to continue the course to 2022 when you will have 120 payments, and ensure that your last 12 months of payments are on an income-driven plan that qualifies.
Anne S says
I started payments in 11/2009 on a direct loan using an extended payment plan. I started working for the federal government in late December 2009. In 2015, I was contacted by Fed loan and told that I needed to go with them to have my loans forgiven. They told me the extended plan was fine. Obviously that information was wrong. Fast forward to today I have over 10 years working for the federal government and 10 years paying my loans on time. In January 2020 I did switch to an income-based plan and did submit my application for loan forgiveness, which of course was denied. So my plan is to make 12 payments on the ICB plan(which is only $31 more than my extended plan) And then reapply using the TEPSLF. So my question is: Now that the govt is saying that you don’t have to make your student loan payments due to the coronavirus, until September 2020, and those missed months will still count towards forgiveness… Do you think they would still count towards the 12 months that I will need to qualify for the TEPSLF?
Robert Farrington says
Yes, these six months count as PSLF-eligible payments as long as you meet the other requirements (employment, job type, repayment plan).
Anne S says
Thank you for the quick reply. One more question. My loans were used for a professional degree program -Doctor of Pharmacy. If I qualify and if the funds and program are still available, will the entire remainder of the loan be forgiven or only a percentage forgiven? For some reason I thought I had read something about TEPSLF only forgiving part of graduate loans. Thanks so much for all the info. I wish we could get a program based on age… over 55 all forgiven!! 😊
SARAH says
I recently was informed that Fed loan (PHEAA) sent my loan forgiveness request to US Dept of Ed. They (both Fed loan and ombudsmon) can provide no updates. I am three years in to applying, reapplying, arguing, etc. I am requesting forgiveness under TEPSLF. Is this a good sign?
Robert Farrington says
Yes, that’s usually a great sign.