Does Forbearance Count Towards PSLF? Usually No — But Buyback Can Fix It

Updated on July 27, 2026

Forbearance months usually do not count toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness. PSLF credits months your loans spend in a qualifying repayment status, and forbearance is not one of them. Some past forbearance and deferment time was credited through programs that have since closed, and PSLF Buyback can still recover months you spent in forbearance while working in public service.

Why Most Forbearance Doesn’t Count Toward PSLF

PSLF requires 120 qualifying monthly payments made while you work full time for a qualifying employer. A month counts only if your loans were in a qualifying repayment status and a payment was actually due — and a forbearance means no payment is due.

The U.S. Department of Education states this directly in its own PSLF guidance, which addresses borrowers who were “in a deferment or forbearance in the past that does not count for PSLF” and points them to buyback as the remedy.

This applies to every kind of forbearance. It does not matter whether you requested it, your servicer granted it for hardship, or the department applied it automatically for an administrative reason.
Most deferment does not count either, with the narrow exceptions described below.
The months are uncredited, not lost. Your qualifying payment count pauses; it does not reset. Time you spent working for a qualifying employer still counts as employment, and buyback exists specifically to convert those non-payment months into qualifying ones.

The Forbearance and Deferment Time That Did Count

A few programs did credit past forbearance and deferment months. Most are now closed, but the credit they granted is already on your account.

The biggest of them was the COVID-19 payment pause, which ran from March 2020 until payments resumed in October 2023. Those suspended months were credited toward PSLF for borrowers with Direct Loans who were working full time for a qualifying employer during that period, even though no payments were due. The credit was applied automatically — there was nothing to apply for, and you did not need to have made payments to receive it. If you did pay during the pause, those months still counted, and you may also be able to request a refund of what you paid. Federal Family Education Loan and Perkins borrowers were the exception: loans not held by the department did not receive the pause credit unless they were consolidated into a Direct Loan in time.

The other programs:

The one-time account adjustment credited long forbearances. It swept in forbearance periods of 12 or more consecutive months, or 36 or more cumulative months, plus certain deferments — all deferments before 2013 other than in-school, and economic hardship or military deferments after 2013. That adjustment is complete and its consolidation deadline has passed, so it is no longer a route to new credit.
The Limited PSLF Waiver ended on October 31, 2022. While it ran, it gave credit for payments on FFEL and Perkins loans, late payments, and payments made under non-qualifying repayment plans. It is closed and cannot be applied for.
Economic hardship deferment during AmeriCorps or Peace Corps service counts. The Department of Education directs volunteers to request an economic hardship deferment specifically, because that time counts as qualifying payments toward PSLF.

SAVE Administrative Forbearance and PSLF Buyback

The largest block of uncredited forbearance right now is SAVE administrative forbearance. After litigation blocked the SAVE plan in July 2024, the department placed millions of borrowers into administrative forbearance because servicers could not bill them. Those months do not count toward PSLF, and interest has been accruing on those loans since August 1, 2025.

Buyback is how you recover them. PSLF Buyback, codified at 34 CFR § 685.219(g)(6), lets you convert deferment and forbearance months into qualifying payments by paying what you would have owed on an income-driven repayment plan.
You need 120 months of certified qualifying employment first. Buyback adds payment credit, not employment credit, and the window opens only when buyback would complete your 120 payments. It is not a way to bank months for later.
It can cost nothing. If your income during those months would have produced a $0 payment on an income-driven plan, the buyback costs $0. That is written into the regulation rather than left to discretion.
SAVE months are now priced off a different formula. The department no longer uses the SAVE payment formula for buyback calculations, so the amount is recalculated under IBR, PAYE, or ICR — typically more expensive than the SAVE formula would have produced.

You request buyback through the PSLF reconsideration form on studentaid.gov; there is no separate buyback application.

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