Does this settlement apply to you?
If you have worked in public service for 10 years or more and made 10 years of payments on your student loans, you are likely eligible to have your debt discharged under PSLF. Even if you were denied PSLF in the past OR your loan servicer said you do not qualify, under this settlement, your application will be reconsidered.
In the past, only on-time payments made on direct loans using income-driven repayment plans or standard 10-year repayment plans counted toward PSLF.
Here's what is new:
The department will retroactively count your past payments toward your 120-payment requirement for PSLF, even if they were made on the wrong loan type or on the wrong payment plan.
This means your loan payments WILL count, even if you made those past payments on:
Current or prior Federal Family Education Loans; or
Graduated or other types of payment plans that did not previously count.
Other types of payments, such as past rolling late payments, will also count.
What you need to do now to get help from the AFT:
Sign up for AFT notifications now. We'll notify you as soon as you can apply: CLICK HERE
Our partner, Summer, will help AFT members navigate this new process. AFT members can sign up for a free account with Summer here.
The AFT will help navigate this new process with our partner Summer. Working with Summer, AFT members already have saved $500 million on student loans. Summer helps AFT members take the steps necessary to qualify for PSLF, including under the just-announced temporary waiver. AFT members can sign up for a free account with Summer here: https://www.meetsummer.org/pslf
Dowload the AFT One-Pager RIGHT HERE.
NEW October 13, 2021: Settlement in Weingarten v. DeVos
The AFT, AFT President Randi Weingarten and eight individual AFT member plaintiffs have reached a landmark settlement with the U.S. Department of Education in the case Weingarten v. DeVos, and as a result tens of thousands of student loan borrowers can expect imminent relief from their student debt. The suit, originally filed in July 2019, addresses the Education Department’s utter failure to deliver on its own Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.