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Public Student Loan Forgiveness Program Frequently Asked Questions
The Federal Government has a program specifically for people who work for nonprofit, government or public sector employers. If you work for one of these employers, have Direct Loans, and make 120 monthly on-time payments, you may be eligible to have your remaining federal student loan debt forgiven tax-free.
Entering into PSLF or another forgiveness program requires a commitment to see it through to the end. Switching to an income-driven repayment plan (required if you are working towards PSLF) may actually cause your student debt to increase over time, which can be problematic unless you get forgiveness at the end. If you know you will not be working fulltime in a non-profit for 120 months, then forgiveness may not be the right path for you. Individuals may want to consult their personal tax or legal adviser before making any decisions regarding the status of their student loans.
There are two service tiers available to borrowers. 1. A free calculator to assess their situation and get guidance on the best options available. 2. For an annual fee of $60, you can enroll in Savi’s Essential service. Savi will administer the program’s ongoing paperwork requirements including annual reenrollment, employer certifications, and filing for PSLF credits with the DOE. This service helps borrowers avoid common and not-so-common errors and to stay in compliance with exacting rules.
PSLF is necessarily paired with an income-driven repayment plan. These are repayment plans that take into account your income, student debt, and personal situation and may result in lower monthly payments. The plans that qualify you for PSLF include IBR, ICR, PAYE, and REPAYE. The Standard repayment plan technically qualifies as well, but since this plan spans only 10 years, you wouldn’t have any balance left to forgive after 120 qualifying monthly payments.
You need to recertify your income annually, but if your income decreases at any point OR you added a dependent (or even become pregnant), you can submit IDR paperwork to have your payment recalculated immediately to try to lower your monthly payments.
Student debt you’ve incurred on behalf of children (Parent PLUS loans) may qualify for relief. You may need to first consolidate them to Direct Consolidation loans; the tool will help steer you in the right direction.
To be eligible for forgiveness, you must be a full-time employee of an eligible public interest employer, that is, at a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit school, university or hospital; in government or approved governmental entities; or at a few other public interest organizations.
No. Once you’re a registered user on Savi’s website, you can try out the free tool first, and decide later if you’d like to take advantage of the optional administrative services available in the Savi Essential. Each year you will be asked if you want to continue with the service and pay the annual fee or not.
Go to tiaa.org/yale/student and follow the path to explore your federal forgiveness options. You’ll need three things to use Savi effectively:
- Your social security number (format: 123-45-6789)
- The first page of your most recent tax transcript* or tax return
*A tax transcript is a summary of your recent tax filings that can be requested from the IRS (Internal Revenue Service). Each transcript includes important information for applying to new student loan repayment plans, such as your filing status, adjusted gross income (AGI), wages, and more. You can request a copy of a tax transcript in about 5 minutes. - Logins to any loan servicers (e.g., Navient, Nelnet, Great Lakes)
Your login information includes username or email, password, and anything else required to log into your student loan servicer’s website. Your student loan servicer website is the place you go to make payments on your student loans. This information will be used to import your student loan details into Savi during the account setup process.
If you have questions, you can chat with the online support on Savi’s site, email partners+tiaa@bysavi.com, or call 1-833-604-1226 weekdays between 8:30a.m. – 8:00p.m. (ET).