Education Department Revises Public Service Student Loan Forgiveness Program
/Earlier this month, the Education Department declared they strive to help public servants such as teachers and nurses qualify for the student loan forgiveness program. Relaxing the program's rules and regulations will help push 550,000 borrowers closer to loan forgiveness and create eligibility for 22,000 other borrowers.
The program was created in 2007 to encourage college students to enter public service. However, since its inception, only 16,000 borrowers have had their debt forgiven, while around 1.3 million public servants are waiting to have their loans forgiven through the program.
When the program was created, if a student went into public service, made ten years of payments, the rest of the student loan would be forgiven. However, many borrowers realized they had taken a loan or began a payment plan that was not eligible for the forgiveness program. Relaxing the rules and regulations surrounding the program will help make it easier for people to apply.
According to the Washington Post, several people had reported that the program was complicated. The loan servicing companies hired by the Department of Education steered them in the wrong direction. This resulted in loans and repayment programs that were not eligible. The Department of Education is looking into the issues and promises to forgive those loans as long as the borrowers have made ten years of payments while working in the public sector.
Moving forward, around 22,000 will have immediate eligibility into the program, and another 27,000 will have their debt forgiven.
To learn more about the overhaul of the public service student loan forgiveness program, please refer to the list of articles below:
https://mailview.bulletinmedia.com/mailview.aspx?m=2021100701nacac&r=8794670-5bac&l=007-409&t=c
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/06/us/politics/student-loan-forgiveness.html