U.S. Department of Education makes major changes to Public Service Loan Forgiveness program

CENTRAL COAST, Calif. (KION) On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Education announced changes to their federal student loan forgiveness program, called 'Public Service Loan Forgiveness,' which aimed at helping public service workers.

Some of the changes include allowing any student borrowers' payments, regardless of loan program or loan payment, and active duty service members' deferments and forbearances to count towards PSLF.

Ever since the inception of the loan forgiveness program, the program has had its issues. Public servant employees like teachers, nurses, social workers, and others are promised to have their debts cleared after making 120 payments, on time. According to researchers, only 2.1% of processed applications have been approved. The new changes promise to make the process easier and qualify more people.

"So, they brought some more clarity, so the changes are involving removing some obstacles and making it easier to qualify for this forgiveness,” said John Fraire, the Vice President of Student Affairs at Cal State University, Monterey Bay.

Barriers that have been removed include implementing a temporary waiver for all prior payments made to count towards the program.

"If you consolidated your other loans into the new Public Service Loan Forgiveness, even though you have been paying your loans for five years, that 60 months of payments, those 60 months of payments didn't county towards the Public Service Loan program...they do now," said Fraire.

Other changes include allowing forbearances and deferments for the military to count towards the payment. For public service workers like teachers, often struggling to pay their student loan debt, these changes could make all the difference.

"This is an amazing moment for educators to have that light at the end of the tunnel that after 10 years of public service their loans can be forgiven if they made these regular payments,” said Kati Bassler, President of the Salinas Valley Federation of Teachers.

22,000 borrowers who ended up consolidating their loans will now be able to eligible for 1.74 billion dollars in forgiveness.

The Department will be communicating directly with borrowers in the upcoming months weeks and months.

For more information, click here: StudentAid.gov/PSLFWaiver