Get Student Loans Forgiven
If you are struggling to make payments on your student loans, you aren’t alone – higher education is very expensive, and most students finish school with significant debt. Fortunately, if your loans are federal, you have access to a variety of repayment plans (including those based on your income), and you may also qualify for various deferment, forbearance, and consolidation options. Best of all, if you meet certain specific requirements, you may be able to get some or all of your loans “forgiven,” meaning that you won’t have to pay them back at all.
Contents
Steps
Qualifying for Teacher Loan Forgiveness
- Know which loans qualify for teacher loan forgiveness. Most subsidized and unsubsidized federal student loans qualify, but Perkins and PLUS loans do not. Note that unless you are a “highly qualified” teacher, you’ll only be eligible for $5,000 in forgiveness.
- Make your student loan payments faithfully. It takes at least five years to qualify for teacher loan forgiveness, and it’s important not to fall into default during that time. Sign up for a repayment plan that works for you, and stay current on your loans.
- Document your payments. In general, it’s best not to trust your loan servicer or the Department of Education to keep accurate records; make sure you log this information independently as well.
- Teach for five consecutive years in a qualifying school. To apply for teacher loan forgiveness, you must teach full time for five consecutive years in a school (either elementary or secondary) that the government has identified as serving an especially low-income population. A school qualifies if:
- it is in a district that meets the requirements for Title I funding under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.
- 30% of its enrolled students qualify for Title I services.
- it appears in the Annual Directory of Designated Low-Income Schools for Teacher Cancellation Benefits, which you can find at https://www.tcli.ed.gov/CBSWebApp/tcli/TCLIPubSchoolSearch.jsp.
- it is run by the Bureau of Indian Education or on an Indian reservation.
- Maximize your loan forgiveness eligibility by becoming a “highly qualified” teacher. Teachers who meet the criteria for the “highly qualified” designation can get more of their loans forgiven – up to $17,500 total. These criteria are subject to change and can be dependent on your state and on how long you’ve been teaching. In general, though:
- If you are an elementary school teacher, you are considered “highly qualified” if you hold a bachelor’s degree, pass designated state tests, and obtain full teacher certification (not emergency or temporary certification).
- If you are a secondary school teacher, you are considered “highly qualified” if you hold a bachelor’s degree and show expertise in your academic subject matter, either through state testing or through a graduate degree program.
- Fill our your portion of the application form. Once you’ve met the requirements, you can simply download and print the application here. Fill out the first two sections. You’ll need to provide:
- your name, address, and other identifying information
- affirmation that you meet the eligibility criteria
- information about whether you are “highly qualified”
- Ask your chief administration officer to fill out the third section. In order to qualify, your school’s chief administration officer must confirm your eligibility.
- Note that if you have fulfilled the requirements by working at more than one school, you’ll need to get additional chief administration officers to provide information. You can have them do so on a separate piece of paper and attach it to your application.
- Send the application to your loan servicer. The application form should not be sent to the Department of Education; instead, you should send it to your loan servicer – the company to which you’ve been making your payments.
- If you’ve been making payments on multiple loans to different companies, and you want more than one of them to be considered for forgiveness, you’ll need to send separate forms to each servicer.
- Continue making your payments until you’ve been notified that your application was successful. Until you know for sure that you’ve been granted forgiveness, you must keep making your regular payments. Once you know how much of your loan has been forgiven, you can adjust your payments as permitted by your loan servicer.
- Investigate cancellation options as well. If you qualify for teacher loan forgiveness, you may also qualify for teacher cancellation. Under this program, you can have your Perkins loans discharged if you teach full-time for at least a year in a low-income school.
Pursuing Public Service Loan Forgiveness
- Know which loans qualify for public service loan forgiveness. Only Direct Loans qualify for this particular kind of forgiveness; Perkins and Federal Family Education loans do not.
- If you have Perkins or Federal Family Education loans, and you want them to qualify for public service loan forgiveness, you can consider consolidating with the federal government. Direct Consolidation Loans do qualify.
- Make your student loan payments faithfully. You must make at least 120 regular monthly payments, on time, to qualify for public service loan forgiveness.
- Document your payments. In general, it’s best not to trust your loan servicer or the Department of Education to keep accurate records; make sure you log this information independently as well.
- Work full time at a tax-exempt organization. While you make your 120 monthly payments, you’ll need to work full time at a non-profit organization or a government agency that the IRS considers tax-exempt. It does not matter what your job title is or what specific services the organization provides, so long as it is tax-exempt.
- Alternatively, you can work for certain non-tax-exempt organizations that the Department of Education deems qualifying. These include:
- the military
- public health and safety organizations
- law enforcement
- early childhood education
- disability services
- Alternatively, you can work for certain non-tax-exempt organizations that the Department of Education deems qualifying. These include:
- Submit annual Employment Certification for Public Service Loan Forgiveness forms. Every year, you should submit an Employment Certification form (you can download and print it here: https://studentaid.ed.gov/sites/default/files/public-service-employment-certification-form.pdf) to update the Department of Education about your qualifying employment. You should also submit a new one whenever you change jobs.
- This bit of bureaucratic red tape may seem like an unnecessary pain, but ultimately, it will help you get your loans forgiven as expeditiously as possible. It will take at least ten years to make the 120 qualifying monthly payments, and most people will change jobs at least once or twice during that time. Submitting annual forms prevents you having to track down former employers when it’s time to apply for forgiveness. It also alerts you immediately if your current job does not actually qualify for the program.
- Complete an application for loan forgiveness. After you have made 120 payments, you will complete an official application for forgiveness, and, as long as you’ve met all the requirements, your remaining qualifying loans will be forgiven.
- Continue making your payments until you’ve been notified that your application was successful. Until you know for sure that you’ve been granted forgiveness, you are required to continue paying.
Investigating Other Ways to Reduce Your Student Loan Debt
- Consider volunteering with AmeriCorps. AmeriCorps is a federal program dedicated to civic education and public service. You don’t get paid for your service, but you can defer your student loan payments while you volunteer, and after a year, you’ll be granted an award of $4,725 to pay down your student loan debt.
- AmeriCorps also runs a program called Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), which is specifically dedicated to solving the problems of homelessness, poverty, and illiteracy. The same guidelines apply for volunteering with this program: you can defer your loan payments and then qualify for $4,725 to pay down your debt.
- Look into Teach for America. Teach for America is a selective program that places recent graduates in teaching positions in low-income communities. For each year that you work for Teach for America, you’ll qualify for $4,725 to pay down your student loans.
- Ask potential employers about student loan repayment programs. Many employers offer help with student loan debt for new employees, so remember to ask about these programs and take advantage of them when available.
- Know whether you qualify for disability-related student loan relief. If you become permanently disabled, you may qualify for a Total and Permanent Disability Discharge (TPD).
- In general, you can only qualify for TPI if you can prove that you have a medical disability that will last for at least five years or will likely result in death.
- Apply for a discharge if you are a parent borrower and your son or daughter passes away. If you took out a PLUS loan so that your child could attend school, and he or she dies, you may be able to have that debt discharged.
- Contact your loan servicer for more information. In most cases, you will have to submit a copy of the death certificate directly to the lender.
Tips
- Always document your student loan payments carefully. You may be required to show that you've paid on time for a certain amount of time to qualify for a certain forgiveness program.
Warnings
- Lots of scammers want to take advantage of you and soak you for even more money. Check into the references of any agency who offers help - including the government.
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