Key facts
- Student loan borrowers are facing delays in relief through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
- Some borrowers who made their 120th payment are still waiting for their payment counter to update.
- The delay forces borrowers to choose between continuing payments or risking delinquency.
- The Education Department did not comment on the delay's resolution timeline.
- President Donald Trump's student-loan overhaul introduced stricter rules for qualifying PSLF payments.
- Courts blocked a rule that would have narrowed PSLF eligibility.
Student-loan borrowers seeking forgiveness through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program are encountering significant delays, with some borrowers who have made the required 120 qualifying payments still awaiting updates to their payment counters. This situation leaves borrowers in limbo, uncertain whether to continue making payments they may no longer owe or to stop and risk being flagged for delinquency.
The Department of Education has not provided a timeline for resolving these processing delays, though a spokesperson affirmed the agency's commitment to ensuring all qualifying payments are correctly credited. Beyond these processing issues, the PSLF program is also subject to ongoing legal battles concerning its eligibility criteria. The Trump administration's overhaul of student-loan repayment introduced more stringent rules for what constitutes a qualifying PSLF payment, and the Department of Education is actively contesting a court ruling that blocked a planned July 1 rule aimed at narrowing program eligibility by excluding employers not meeting its definition of 'public service.'