The PSLF Buyback Program lets you pay for months that didn't count toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness, so they do. If you spent time in a deferment or forbearance that wasn't PSLF-eligible while working a qualifying public service job, you can make retroactive payments for those months and have them credited toward your 120.
To qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness, you need 120 months of qualifying payments made while employed full-time by a qualifying employer. Buyback is the fix for borrowers whose employment months and payment months don't line up, most commonly because of the SAVE forbearance that ran from July 2024 until the plan was ended by a court in March 2026.
Buyback is also the part of PSLF that changed the most in 2026. The Department of Education stopped pricing buyback months under SAVE on March 31, 2026, excluded months spent in the new Repayment Assistance Plan as of July 1, 2026, and stopped publishing processing data in May. Here's what you need to know, including how the buyback amount is actually calculated under the current rules.
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Requirements For The PSLF Buyback Program
To qualify for the PSLF Buyback Program, you must have 120 months of qualifying employment in a qualifying public service job. You must also have an outstanding student loan balance remaining.
You can buy back months when the you were in an ineligible deferment or forbearance status but otherwise eligible for PSLF by making payments that are the equivalent of what you would have paid if you had been in a qualifying payment plan during the deferment or forbearance period.
You must buy back enough months to result in forgiveness under PSLF or TEPSLF. Buybacks that do not complete the 120 qualifying payment count requirement are not permitted — and you cannot buyback months that are ineligible for credit toward PSLF.
You must have been in a repayment status during the months to be bought back. You cannot have been in an in-school or grace period, in default or bankruptcy, or in a total and permanent disability monitoring period.
Only months in the Direct Loan program can be bought back. FFELP loans are not eligible unless consolidated into a Federal Direct Consolidation Loan. You cannot buy back months prior to consolidation, and time periods prior to October 1, 2007, when the PSLF program started, do not count.
Here's a quick guide to which periods and payments count for PSLF vs. PSLF Buyback:
Amount Of The Buyback Payments
Each bought-back month costs the lowest payment you would have owed under IBR, PAYE, or ICR for that month, capped at the 10-year Standard payment if that's lower. ED stopped using the SAVE formula on March 31, 2026, and the sixth court-ordered status report in May confirmed that buyback offers can no longer be based on SAVE. REPAYE is not used either. Our buyback calculator and worked examples run the current math.
If you were in SAVE when the forbearance started, ED's updated guidance says "the IDR plan you were in immediately before you enrolled in the SAVE Plan is used to inform the payment amount," as reported by Forbes. For most SAVE borrowers that was REPAYE, PAYE, or IBR, and the result is a higher bill than the SAVE-era estimates. Third-party estimates put the increase at 30% to 80% per month depending on income and family size, which is why the IDR plan explainer matters again for buyback.
The lookback rule depends on how long the gap was. For a gap under 12 months, ED uses the lower of the IDR payments immediately before and immediately after the period. For 12 months or longer, ED calculates each calendar year separately from your tax return for that year, which is why a two-year SAVE forbearance gets priced in two pieces. The SAVE exit timeline explains why most of those gaps now span 2024, 2025, and 2026.
If you were not on an IDR plan during the gap, you'll need to provide a copy of your federal income tax return for each tax year in the period, or a signed statement that you weren't required to file, plus a statement of your family size for each year. ED gives you 30 days to respond to a document request. Without the documents, ED defaults to the Standard 10-year payment, which is almost always the most expensive outcome.
A $0 month is a $0 buyback. If your income in the relevant year would have produced a $0 IDR payment, those months cost nothing to buy back, which is common for borrowers whose income was below the poverty-line multiple for their plan. Run your own numbers in the buyback calculator before deciding whether to apply.
For Parent PLUS loans, the buyback amount is the Standard 10-year payment unless the Parent PLUS loan is in a Direct Consolidation Loan, in which case the Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR) payment is used if lower. Parent PLUS loans are eligible for PSLF but not TEPSLF.
How To Apply For The PSLF Buyback Program
You request a buyback through the PSLF Reconsideration Application on StudentAid.gov. The form now has "PSLF Buyback" as a drop-down reason, so you no longer need to type a specific phrase, and the system blocks a second buyback request while one is pending. Before you file, check your qualifying payment count in your StudentAid.gov account.
Your qualifying payment count has to be right first. If your count is wrong, select "Incorrect Qualifying Payment Count," specify the start and end of the period in question (for multiple periods, use the start of the earliest and the end of the latest), and get that fixed before the buyback request. The PSLF checklist walks through the count review.
If ED approves your request, you'll receive a PSLF Buyback Agreement listing the months and the total. Your servicer must receive the full amount within 90 days of the date on the agreement. You can pay in installments as long as the total arrives by the deadline, and if it doesn't, the agreement is void and you start over. If ED denies the request, you have 90 days from the denial notice to ask for reconsideration, per Tate Law's summary of the current rules.
Keep making your regular loan payments until the buyback is approved and paid. Every qualifying payment you make while waiting reduces the number of months you need to buy, and if your regular payments exceed the amount in the agreement, ED refunds the excess as long as you have no other outstanding federal loans. You can also change repayment plans while your request is pending without affecting the request.
How Long Does PSLF Buyback Take?
There is no official processing time, and ED says it can't provide status on a pending request. Borrowers report waits of one to two years, and some who filed in late 2024 were still waiting in the fall of 2026. ED's buyback page says it will respond by email when the review is done, so you don't need to call. Our PSLF buyback delays tracker carries the latest figures.
The backlog is court-documented through April 2026. Under its agreement in American Federation of Teachers v. Department of Education, ED filed six monthly status reports. Pending requests grew from 49,318 in the first report to a peak of 89,720 at the end of March 2026, then eased to about 88,000 at the end of April after ED decided 6,870 requests that month (6,600 approved, 200 denied, 70 closed for missing information). ED also estimated 18,000 to 19,000 of the pending requests were duplicates and said it would remove them up front. The April report was the last one made public.
Since May, the only numbers are what ED has told reporters. In October 2026, ED told The Washington Post that roughly 82,000 requests were pending and about 2,500 were decided in August. None of that is in a court filing.
The next status conference in the AFT case is scheduled for November 23, 2026, and we'll update the tracker if the court orders new reporting.
Should You Apply, Or Just Keep Paying?
If you'll reach 120 qualifying payments on your own before ED gets to your request, you don't need the buyback. At the April pace of about 6,870 decisions a month, the queue clears in roughly 13 months, or 10 with duplicates removed. At the August pace ED described, it's years. Count your current qualifying payments and estimate when you hit 120 with normal payments. If that date comes first, the request becomes moot, and ED cancels it when forgiveness posts. The pending-applications analysis walks through that math.
Applying anyway costs nothing and holds your place. The downside is price. Your current IBR or RAP payment may be higher than what the buyback month would cost, so paying forward isn't always cheaper than buying back. The buyback calculator compares the two.
Don't take a forbearance to "save" months for a cheaper buyback later. Since March 31, 2026 the buyback price is an IDR payment, not a SAVE payment, so there's no discount to chase, and if you're on RAP the months can't be bought back at all. The RAP vs. IBR decision is where PSLF borrowers should spend their attention instead.
Other Options
You can't request a buyback before you have 120 months of qualifying employment, but you can prepay. A lump-sum payment covers up to 12 months of future PSLF payments, through your next income-driven plan recertification date, and those months count once you certify qualifying employment for the period. Employment can't be certified in advance, so prepaying is a cash-flow tool, not a shortcut. The PSLF qualification explainer covers the prepayment rule.
The 2023 SAVE rule also created an "IDR Buyback" at 34 CFR 685.209 for borrowers pursuing 20- or 25-year IDR forgiveness. It never launched, and the court order that ended SAVE in March 2026 took that rule down with it. Don't plan around it.
Congress could make buyback unnecessary for SAVE forbearance months. The bipartisan PSLF Inclusion Act, H.R. 10298, would count administrative forbearance months as qualifying payments for public servants. It was referred to the House Education and Workforce Committee in September 2026 with no hearing scheduled, and it dies on January 3, 2027 if the 119th Congress doesn't act. Until something passes, buyback is the only route.
The Department of Education publishes the full list of forgiveness programs at StudentAid.gov/forgiveness, and we keep a list of every student loan forgiveness program with eligibility details.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can You Apply For PSLF Buyback Before 120 Months Of Employment?
No. ED's buyback page says it is "only available to you if you already have 120 months of qualifying employment," and requests filed early are denied. Certify your employment with every qualifying employer first, then request the buyback once your account shows 120 months. The PSLF checklist covers certification.
Can You Buy Back Months Spent In RAP?
No. Since July 1, 2026, ED's guidance excludes months spent enrolled in the Repayment Assistance Plan or the Tiered Standard Plan from buyback. RAP payments themselves count toward PSLF, but a forbearance taken while on RAP can't be repaired later. See how RAP interacts with PSLF.
Is PSLF Buyback Going Away?
Not formally. The regulation at 34 CFR 685.219 is still in place and ED has not started rulemaking to remove it, which would take a year or longer. The program has shrunk in practice through the RAP exclusion, the new-borrower rules, and a backlog ED stopped reporting in May 2026. Our buyback delays tracker follows any change.
How Much Does PSLF Buyback Cost?
Each month costs the lowest IBR, PAYE, or ICR payment you would have owed for that month, or the 10-year Standard payment if lower. SAVE is not used since March 31, 2026. A 15-month buyback at $400 a month is $6,000, due within 90 days of approval. Use the buyback calculator for your own estimate.
Do You Have To Keep Paying While You Wait?
Yes, unless you qualify for and request a separate deferment or forbearance. Waiting on a buyback does not pause your loans. Each payment you make shrinks the buyback you'll need, and ED refunds any overpayment above the agreement amount if you have no other federal loans. Read what happens if you change plans while the request is pending.
What Happens If You Reach 120 Payments Before ED Processes Your Request?
Your loans are forgiven through regular PSLF and the buyback request is cancelled as unnecessary. You don't owe anything for the months you were trying to buy. With waits running one to two years, this is the outcome for many borrowers who filed in 2025, as our pending-applications analysis found.
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Editor: Ashley Barnett Reviewed by: Robert Farrington
Mark Kantrowitz is an expert on student financial aid, scholarships, 529 plans, and student loans. He has been quoted in more than 10,000 newspaper and magazine articles about college admissions and financial aid. Mark has written for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Reuters, USA Today, MarketWatch, Money Magazine, Forbes, Newsweek, and Time. You can find his work on Student Aid Policy here.
Mark is the author of five bestselling books about scholarships and financial aid and holds seven patents. Mark serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Student Financial Aid, the editorial advisory board of Bottom Line/Personal, and is a member of the board of trustees of the Center for Excellence in Education. He previously served as a member of the board of directors of the National Scholarship Providers Association. Mark has two Bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and philosophy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a Master’s degree in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU).