Public Service Loan Forgiveness
Protect Borrowers works to protect debt cancellation for public service workers through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
Congress created Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) in 2007 to provide public service workers with student loan debt relief in exchange for a decade of service in their communities. However, millions of public service workers who planned their lives around the promise of eventual loan forgiveness were denied that relief. Servicers, like Navient, PHEAA, and MOHELA, steered borrowers away from qualifying repayment plans and lied about borrower eligibility, resulting in 98 percent of public service workers getting denied PSLF. To address these long-standing breakdowns, the Biden Administration temporarily waived certain PSLF program requirements. However, the provisions of this waiver have expired. The promise of PLSF continues to be impeded by servicer abuses while political attacks threaten to deny access to millions of teachers, nurses, servicemembers, and other public service workers.
What We’re Doing
Protect Borrowers has engaged in several years-long investigations to expose servicer mismanagement and abuse, which robs millions of public service workers of credit towards PSLF.
We develop novel applications of existing law along with model legislation, which combined have delivered relief for more than a million public service workers. Public service workers have the right to debt cancellation after ten years of public service, and Protect Borrowers is fighting in court to hold servicers and the Trump Administration accountable when they deny borrowers that right.
By The Numbers
$78.5 billion
Following the PSLF Waiver, over 1 million borrowers have received $78.5 billion in PSLF cancellation.
98% denied
Prior to the Biden Administration, only 7,000 borrowers ever received PSLF, and 98 percent of applications were denied.
Nearly 1 dozen pslf state bills
Nearly a dozen states have passed PSLF bills, making PSLF easier to access in those states by requiring public service employers to notify employees they are eligible and, in some cases, mandate a multiplier be used to calculate hours for adjunct and contingent faculty.