Public Service Loan Forgiveness

The Biden-Harris administration has canceled student debt for 1 million public service workers. “From day one, the Biden-Harris administration has proudly stood up for public service workers shackled by student debt,” AFT President Randi Weingarten said after the White House announced the milestone in its fight for borrowers’ rights. “The president firmly believes in the bipartisan promise of Public Service Loan Forgiveness—that those who dedicate their careers to helping others deserve debt relief after a decade of repayments.”

In order for your payments to be eligible for PSLF, you must meet the following criteria:

• Loan Type: You must have any type of federal Direct Loan.
• Repayment Plan: You must be enrolled in an income-driven repayment plan.
• Employment: You must work 30 or more hours a week in public service employment, which includes public school districts; public and nonprofit charter schools; public and nonprofit hospitals; public and nonprofit colleges and universities; federal, state, county, municipal and tribal government agencies; and other types of 501(c)3 nonprofit organizations.

How to enroll

1. Check your loan types: Log in to your Federal Student Aid account and check what types of loans you have on your account dashboard. If you have Federal Family Education Loans or Perkins Loans, consolidate them into Direct Consolidation Loans so that future payments qualify.
2. Enroll in an income-driven repayment plan: If you have any type of Direct Loan that you took out for your own education, you can enroll in either the new Saving on a Valuable Education Plan—the most generous IDR plan available to borrowers—or the Income-Based Repayment Plan. However, borrowers who enroll in the SAVE Plan are currently being placed in a noninterest-bearing forbearance that does not count as an on-time payment toward PSLF while a court challenge to the repayment plan is heard. If you wish to make qualifying payments toward PSLF right now, you must enroll in the Income-Based Repayment Plan.
   If you have Parent Plus Loans, you can enroll in the Income-Contingent Repayment Plan but must consolidate your loans before enrolling.
3. Submit the Public Service Loan Forgiveness application: Use the PSLF Help Tool to certify your previous employment for qualifying payments. We recommend submitting the PSLF application once a year to update your payment count to ensure that it is accurate.
4. Final application: After your 120th qualifying payment, submit the PSLF application one final time. You must still be working in public service when you submit the final application.
5. Let us know about your experience at go.aft.org/DebtJourney.

Need more assistance?

• Register for an AFT Student Debt Clinic webinar.
• Request an AFT Student Debt Clinic for your local union at debtclinic@aft.org.
• Sign up for Summer, the free AFT member benefit that helps you navigate your student loans. Summer provides information and additional support to help you navigate applying for PSLF and other loan forgiveness options.