Public Service Loan Forgiveness: What It Is, How It Works

• PSLF erases your student loan balance after 120 qualifying payments. You must work full-time for a government or nonprofit employer and be on a qualifying repayment plan like IDR.

• Your job title doesn’t matter. Your employer does. Only government agencies, 501(c)(3) nonprofits, or qualifying public service nonprofits count.

• Loan servicers make mistakes; track your PSLF status yourself. Certify employment annually, check your payment count on StudentAid.gov, and report errors right away.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness is a federal program that forgives the remaining balance on eligible Direct Loans after 120 qualifying payments if you work full-time for a government or nonprofit employer.

PSLF does not forgive all loans—only Direct Loans qualify. FFEL or Perkins Loans must be consolidated first. Private loans aren’t eligible.

Eligible employers include:

• Government agencies (federal, state, local, or tribal)

• 501(c)(3) nonprofits and some public service organizations

• Public schools and universities

• Nonprofit or public hospitals and clinics

• Law enforcement, military, social work, and other public service roles

This means government workers, civil servants, and nonprofit employees may qualify if they meet all PSLF program requirements.

Unlike income-driven repayment plans that take 20–25 years, PSLF forgives your balance in 10—and it’s 100% tax-free.

With lawsuits challenging student loan forgiveness in 2024 and 2025, PSLF remains one of the fastest ways for government and nonprofit employees to eliminate student debt—if they meet all requirements.

Related: Nonprofit Employee Student Loan Forgiveness

PSLF has three non-negotiable requirements. You need:

1. A qualifying employer

2. The right type of loans

3. 120 qualifying payments

Miss one, and you’re out.

Does Your Job Qualify?

It’s not about your title. It’s about who pays you. PSLF is only for government, nonprofit, and public service jobs. Does your employer qualify? Check it out here: PSLF Qualifying Employers List.

That means you need to work for a federal, state, local, or tribal government or a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Some nonprofits qualify if they provide public services like education, public health, public interest law, or the military.

For-profit employers don’t count. It doesn’t matter if you’re working as a teacher, nurse, military, or public defender. If your employer is a private business, a public forgiveness loan program isn’t an option.

You also have to be full-time, which means at least 30 hours per week, or whatever your employer considers full-time if it’s higher.

Related:

• Military Student Loan Forgiveness

• Teacher Loan Forgiveness

• Public Service Loan Forgiveness Hospitals

Do Your Loans Qualify?

Does PSLF forgive all loans? Right now, only federal Direct Loans are eligible. That includes Direct Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loans, Direct PLUS Loans, and Direct Consolidation Loans.

If you have FFEL or Perkins Loans, they don’t count unless you consolidate them into a Direct Loan. But be careful. Consolidation resets your PSLF payment count to zero. If you’ve already made qualifying payments, you could lose them.

Parent PLUS Loans are even trickier. The only way to make them eligible is to consolidate them into a Federal Direct Loan Program and repay under the Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR) plan. Even then, it’s not always straightforward.

Private student loans never qualify. Loans in default don’t count either unless you get them back in good standing. Payments under the wrong plan, like graduated or extended loan repayment, won’t count toward your 120.

Related:

• Private Student Loan Forgiveness Options

• Can You Get Student Loan Forgiveness If You Are in Default?

Not sure what kind of loans you have? Check out this guide to see if your student loan is federal: How Do I Know if My Student Loans are Federal? If something’s off, fix it now before you waste any more time.

PSLF wipes out your remaining student loan balance after 120 qualifying payments, but only if you follow the rules exactly.

Here’s how it works:

1. Every time you make a payment under an IDR plan or the 10-year Standard Repayment Plan, your loan servicer logs it.

2. The PSLF Help Tool tracks your progress by matching your payments to your employment records. But servicers make mistakes, and if you’re not checking at least once a year, you could be wasting time on payments that don’t count.

3. Once you hit 120 qualifying payments, you submit the PSLF form. Your loan servicer reviews your history. If everything checks out, your remaining balance will be forgiven.

4. But if something doesn’t line up (i.e., wrong employer, missed payment, incorrect plan), those payments won’t count. Learn more about this issue here: Why Your PSLF Qualifying Payments Aren’t Counting.

Even a small mistake can cost you years. That’s why you need to verify your eligibility every year. If you wait until the end to check, you could find out you’ve been paying for nothing.

As of July 2024, the U.S. Department of Education has taken full control of PSLF, replacing MOHELA as the program’s administrator. The goal? Faster processing, fewer mistakes, and a smoother experience for borrowers.

Now, everything PSLF-related happens directly through StudentAid.gov. You can track eligible and qualifying payments, submit forms, and check your status all in one place. The Department of Education now processes every PSLF application and approval, but your loans stay with your current servicer. No forced transfers just to qualify.

From May to July 2024, PSLF processing was paused during the transition, but everything is now back up and running.

If you’re working toward public education loan forgiveness, use the PSLF Help Tool on StudentAid.gov to submit forms and track progress. With this centralized system, processing times should be faster, and self-service tools are expected to improve.

PSLF isn’t complicated, but one mistake can cost you months or years. Follow these steps to get it right:

1. Check your employer. Use the Employer Search Tool on StudentAid.gov to see if your job qualifies. If your employer isn’t listed, submit the PSLF form anyway, and your servicer will confirm. You also need to be full-time (at least 30 hours per week or whatever your employer considers full-time, if higher).

2. Submit the PSLF form. Use the PSLF Help Tool on StudentAid.gov to generate your employment certification form. If your employer allows electronic signatures, submit it online. If not, print it, get a signature, and upload it. You can certify past payments as long as they were made after October 2007 while working for a qualifying employer.

3. Make sure your loans qualify. Only Direct Loans in a federal program count. If you have FFEL or Perkins Loans, they don’t count unless you consolidate them into a Direct Consolidation Loan first. But be careful: consolidation resets your PSLF payment count to zero. Read more here: Consolidate an FFELP Loan to a Direct Loan.

4. Track your progress. Log in to StudentAid.gov to check your qualifying payment count. If something looks off, contact your servicer immediately. Keep your own records (bank statements, payment receipts, and PSLF forms), so you have proof if they get it wrong.

5. Certify your employment every year. Submit a PSLF form annually and whenever you switch jobs. If you miss a year, you can still certify retroactively. Double-check everything before submitting. If your employer stops qualifying, past monthly payments still count, but you’ll need to certify new employment.

The PSLF process takes 3 to 6 months from submission to forgiveness. Keep checking your status, update your records every year, and respond fast if your servicer asks for anything. The more you stay on top of it, the smoother and faster it’ll go.

If your PSLF application was denied or your payment count looks wrong, you can challenge the decision. The PSLF Reconsideration process lets you dispute issues like employment eligibility, payment counts, and loan types.

If you made over 120 qualifying payments, you overpaid and should get a PSLF overpayment refund. The Department of Education approves and processes refunds.

Officially, refunds are supposed to take 1 to 2 weeks after forgiveness, but delays are common. Some borrowers have waited months due to high volume and slow manual processing.

If your reconsideration request or refund is dragging on, check the StudentAid website and push for updates. If they stall, escalate. Mistakes happen all the time, and servicers won’t fix them unless you stay on top of it.

Not every payment you’ve made automatically counts toward PSLF, but some programs allow borrowers to gain credit, which could get you to forgiveness faster.

PSLF Buyback

If you had long periods of forbearance (pause payments) or deferment, some of those months might still count toward PSLF, especially if they were due to economic hardship or loan servicer mistakes. This is called the PSLF buyback program.

To qualify, you must:

• Have had federally managed loans during the forbearance or deferment period.

• Have an approved PSLF employment history for those months.

The PSLF Waiver

The PSLF Limited Waiver (which ended in October 2022) allowed non-qualifying payments and loan types to count toward PSLF. That program is gone, along with the one-time IDR Account Adjustment, which ends in July 2024.

This adjustment lets borrowers earn PSLF credit for past payments, even if they were made under the wrong plan. If you had deferment, forbearance, or non-qualifying payments, check StudentAid.gov to see if you can still get credit.

Related: One-Time Government Waivers for Student Loans

PSLF can be confusing, and loan servicers make mistakes all the time. If you’re not tracking your progress, you could lose years of qualifying payments without realizing it. Use these resources to stay on top of your PSLF status and avoid setbacks.

Dept of ED PSLF Pages

• Main PSLF Hub Page

• PSLF Data

• PSLF Help Tool

• PSLF Employer Search

• PSLF FAQs

• PSLF Paper Employer Certification Form

• PSLF Reconsideration Request Hub Page

• Submit a PSLF Reconsideration Request

• PSLF Buyback Hub Page

PSLF Official Help

• Department of Education PSLF Support: Call the Federal Student Aid Information Center (FSAIC) at 1-800-433-3243 or visit StudentAid.gov for general PSLF questions.

• Federal Student Aid Ombudsman: Call their service center at 1-877-557-2575 or visit ombudsman.ed.gov if your servicer is giving you the runaround or refusing to correct errors.

Other PSLF Help

• Reddit’s PSLF Community: Borrowers share real experiences, updates, and PSLF strategies. Not official, but useful.

• Stay Updated: Check our blog for the latest PSLF updates, policy changes, and mistakes to avoid.

These resources can make or break your PSLF approval. Use them. Track your progress. Fix mistakes early. If something looks wrong, don’t wait; fight back.

PSLF is one of the most effective public loan forgiveness programs available today.

If you qualify for it, PSLF can wipe out your student debt tax-free. You need to work full-time for a qualifying employer, have federal Direct Loans, and make 120 on-time qualifying payments. One mistake can set you back years.

If you’re counting on PSLF, take action now. Check your eligibility on StudentAid.gov, certify your employment every year, and track your payments. If something’s off, fix it before it costs you.

Loan servicers make a lot of mistakes, and PSLF rules keep shifting.

Book a call with one of our student loan experts if you want clear, straightforward help getting your full PSLF credit.

We can help you fight back, challenge errors, and make sure every payment counts toward your forgiveness.

Related reading:

• When Did PSLF Start?

• PSLF Eligible Employers

• Do I Need to Consolidate My Student Loans for PSLF?

• When Will IDR Adjustments Be Made?