I have worked for a tax-exempt nonprofit agency for 11 years this October. Aside from a 2 year deferment while I was in graduate school, I have made all payments on time and should qualify for PSLF next year. However, I failed to consolidate my loan to the correct loan type until 2012 and the loan servicer (FedLoan Servicing) is reporting that I won’t be eligible for PSLF until 2024. This is extremely frustrating. For a long time my payments on IBR were $0 because I was making such little money, and I still owe $60K on my loans. What recourse do I have? Should I contact an attorney? Have there ever been exceptions made for this type of situation? I’ve done the requisite service at a qualifying agency, and I will have completed all 120 payments as of next year.

You may want to review the PSLF guidelines and information at https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/repay-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/public-service . The program was only started in Oct. 2007, so you wouldn’t be eligible for forgiveness until Oct. 2017. And if you consolidate your loans, you are creating a new loan that then resets the 10-year clock on PSLF. It’s certainly frustrating how many requirements and limitations are placed on student loan holders for them to qualify for PSLF. And loan servicers are very limited in their help. Unless you were specifically given incorrect information by someone in position of authority (servicer, dept of ed, etc.) that you relied on after 2007 that has delayed your eligibility, you may not have much recourse (and even then, it is uncertain). You could contact an attorney or the Dept of Ed ombudsman - all just my informal thoughts.

Why 2024 and not 2022? If you converted to the correct loan type in 2012, I’d think 2022 would be the year of forgiveness if you had the right repayment plan and the right kind of job. Unfortunately, with government programs like this, you have to follow the federal guidelines from beginning to end. You might have recourse if you have proof that someone told you something erroneous, as hoya said, but it’s a crapshoot and can take many months, even years to sort out. Make an effort to constantly submit the employee certification forms. This will ensure that you are making qualifying payments so you don’t find out at the very last minute that you wasted 10 years of payments. Plus, submitting the first form takes Fedloan Servicing about 4-6 months to process…(apparently subsequent forms take much less time….the first takes forever because they are backlogged and have to get info from all your past servicers before the loans are transferred to them).