Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) is a program that can allow federal student loan borrowers to get their federal loans forgiven after 120 “qualifying payments.” A qualifying payment is a payment made on a Direct federal student loan under an income-driven repayment plan (or the 10-year Standard repayment plan) while working as a full-time employee for a domestic public or 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
Because of the complexity of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, and the fact that many student loan servicers did a poor job communicating the program’s requirements, many student loan borrowers thought they were making progress, but were not. If a borrower made a payment on the wrong type of federal loan, or made payments under a non-qualifying repayment plan, they may not be eligible for loan forgiveness.
Congress recently passed a legislative fix to try to address some of these peculiarities. This new program is called Temporary Expanded Public Service Loan Forgiveness, or TEPSLF. TEPSLF is somewhat limited, and it has some serious flaws. But here’s how it works.
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