Hi Heather.  Thank you so much for all your help in this area as it is so confusing, even to educated people like myself!

I graduated from law school in 2008 and went into private practice.  I’ve always wanted to be a prosecutor but never wanted to accept the minimal pay.  Finally, I decided to just do it because I was unhappy in civil practice.  So in December 2012 I began working as a prosecutor for my local county.  I couldn’t be happier. :)

I consolidated my federal loans through Direct Loans, and got into the IBR plan.  Sallie Mae was assigned to service the loans.  I then moved them over to FedLoan Servicing, because my research showed that they are the prime PSLF servicer.  I made my first IBR payment on 1/10/13 to Sallie Mae, and then my next one and all subsequent payments were made to FedLoan.

I am married.  My fear is that I’m not jumping through all the required hoops, and someone is going to come to me in 10 years and say “sorry, you’ve been doing this all wrong, and you need to repay everything.”  I will just die if that happens!  Because I didn’t start paying on the IBR plan until January 2013, my husband and I filed jointly for 2012.  We plan on filing separately for 2013 moving forward so that we don’t have to include his income, because otherwise my $400 monthly payment will sky rocket, and I’m still paying $300/month to private loans.  I just want to make sure that I’m reading everything correctly, and that I don’t have to include my husband’s income as long as we file separately for each year that I’m paying on the IBR and toward PSLF.  Even though I applied for IBR in December 2012, I didn’t start paying on it until 2013 and don’t intend to try and apply any 2012 loan payments toward PSLF - I mean, I can’t because I wasn’t paying on IBR until January 2013.  I guess I’m just paranoid because I’d hate to come to 10 years and be told I screwed up and can’t get the benefit.  That would suck and would totally kill me financially.  Any thoughts?

Thanks so much. :)

Hello Evelyn.  This is James (Heather’s Communications Director, and husband).  As for Public Service Loan Forgiveness, you earn it by making payments.  A borrower has to make the right kind of payments, on the right kind of loans, while working in the right kind of job.  For more about PSLF and IBR, start by reading through Public Service Loan Forgiveness in 5 Easy Steps and the other one-pagers on our tools page under Essential Tools for Student Loan Borrowers: http://askheatherjarvis.com/tools.  There is also an employment certification process that you can work through to confirm that your job qualifies for PSLF: http://askheatherjarvis.com/blog/3-new-documents-everyone-in-government-and-nonprofit-services-needs-right-n.

For your questions about IBR and your spouse’s income, please check out Question #24 at this URL: http://studentaid.ed.gov/sites/default/files/income-based-repayment-common-questions.pdf.

I hope this helps and thanks for your public service!  Let me know if other questions come up.

Best,

James