Student Loan Forgiveness
Every consolidation that we process will be under the William D. Ford Federal Direct Program, also known as the Obama Student Loan Forgiveness program. This program has loan forgiveness built in to the end of your payment terms. When you have made your payments for the allotted time, any unpaid balance will be forgiven by the Department of Education. There are many different repayment options associated with the Obama Student Loan consolidation program.
What is Public Service Loan Forgiveness?
If you make 120 qualifying payments while working full-time in certain public service positions, the remaining balance on your Direct Loans may be forgiven. FFEL Loans or Perkins Loans will not qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness.
If you consolidate your FFEL or Perkins loans into a Direct Consolidation Loan, those loans could then become eligible for forgiveness. Just remember, any payments you made on your loans before they were consolidated will not count towards loan forgiveness. And anytime you consolidate a loan you could lose any benefits attached to that original loan, so be sure to evaluate your loan terms before deciding to consolidate.
In order to receive loan forgiveness, you must be enrolled in a qualifying repayment plan:
- Standard Repayment Plan
- Income-Based Repayment Plan
- Income-Contingent Repayment Plan
- Pay As You Earn Repayment Plan
- Any repayment plan where your monthly payment is equal to or greater than what your payment would be under the Standard Repayment Plan
While Standard Repayment is an eligible repayment plan for Public Service Loan Forgiveness, if you make all of your monthly payments for 10 years under Standard Repayment, there will be no balance remaining to forgive. If you are enrolled on a plan that lowers your payments based on your income, you will likely still have a balance to forgive after 10 years.
Examples of public service employment include working for:
- A government organization
- A non-profit501 (c)(3) organization
- A private, non-profit organization that provides a public service, including: law enforcement, public safety, military service, emergency management, public education, early childhood education, public or school library services, public interest legal services, public health, public service for the elderly or those with disabilities.
- AmeriCorps or PeaceCorps
Because the program was introduced in 2007, only payments made towards your loans after October 1, 2007 will count towards loan forgiveness. The first borrowers will not be able to apply for loan forgiveness until October 2017.
You may also Contact Us and speak to one of our Student Loan Specialists if you would like to get one-on-one, personalized advice on how to qualify and apply for any of these assistance programs.
What is Teacher Loan Forgiveness?
The Teacher Loan Forgiveness program is the most beneficial to teachers, as it allows for early forgiveness as well as the principle reduction. Teachers might be eligible for $5,000 to $17,500 in principle reduction under certain circumstances. The main reason for the principle reduction, is to get people to go into the field of teaching, as well as to stay in the teaching field. Teachers qualify for complete loan forgiveness after 10 years of payments and service as a teacher. For more information please Contact Us.
What is Total and Permanent Disability Discharge?
If you are unable to work because of a physical or mental impairment, you might qualify for a discharge of your Federal Student Loan balance. For more information please Contact Us.