PSLF on Pause: How to Survive Loan Forgiveness Delays and Errors

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program is about to go on a lengthy hiatus. Starting May 1, 2024, the Biden administration will implement a three-month processing pause while the Education Department facilitates an important servicing transition. 

Between May and July, PSLF data will be unavailable to borrowers, student loan forgiveness will not be granted and employment certification forms will not be processed. Basically, the entire program will be suspended, with no PSLF activity whatsoever.

The processing pause is not welcome news for borrowers, many of whom have already been experiencing lengthy delays and confusing information on their loan forgiveness status under the program. However, administration officials hope that the end result will be a better user experience for borrowers pursuing PSLF.

Here are answers to your top questions about the processing suspension.

Why is there a PSLF suspension?

The Biden administration is implementing the PSLF suspension as the program transitions from the MOHELA servicing platform to StudentAid.gov. 

“We’re making changes to streamline your federal student loan and grant web experience.”

Education Department

“We’re making changes to streamline your federal student loan and grant web experience,” says Education Department guidance. “These changes will eventually allow you to fully manage your federal student loans and grants on StudentAid.gov,” regardless of your loan servicer.

“Beginning May 1, 2024, the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) and Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grant programs will no longer be managed through a designated loan servicer” such as MOHELA, says the department. “Instead, we are updating our systems and contact centers to streamline and fully manage these programs through StudentAid.gov. Moving forward, you’ll be able to submit your PSLF and TEACH forms on StudentAid.gov, track your progress with these programs on StudentAid.gov, and get support for these programs through our contact centers.”

In other words, once the transition is complete, instead of accessing PSLF information (including qualifying payment counts and eligible employment periods) through their MOHELA account, borrowers can view it via their StudentAid.gov accounts. This has been a long-planned shift, as the Education Department hopes that borrowers will eventually be able to manage many aspects of federal student loan repayment and forgiveness through StudentAid.gov rather than relying on individual loan servicer portals.

What will happen during PSLF suspension?

During the processing pause, which will last from May until July, borrowers will lose access to their PSLF data, and the program will largely grind to a halt.

“Beginning on May 1, 2024, you will no longer be able to access your PSLF progress, certified employment, or payment counts on MOHELA’s borrower portal,” said the Education Department. “You will not see updates to your PSLF payment counts as you make qualifying payments or certify employment with a PSLF form submission during the pause in processing. Your qualifying payment counts will be updated after the transition is complete in July. At that time, you will be able to access a new PSLF dashboard on StudentAid.gov.”

Not only will borrowers not see any updates to PSLF payment counts or receive any loan forgiveness during the transition, but borrowers also won’t be able to get questions answered about their PSLF status.

“During this transition period, the Federal Student Aid Information Center (FSAIC) will not be able to provide any information about your PSLF account, including whether we have received a paper form… Your loan servicer will not be able to answer any questions related to your PSLF form or payment counts,” says the department.

What should you do to prepare for the PSLF suspension?

Borrowers will temporarily lose access to their PSLF data, and there’s always a possibility of errors once the program restarts in the summer. For that reason, it’s not a bad idea to download your PSLF information before May 1. This includes all “PSLF Tracking” data available through your MOHELA account, particularly the detailed information on qualifying payments and qualifying employment.

“If you want to save screenshots and correspondence for your personal records, we recommend accessing the portal by April 30, 2024,” says the Education Department.

The National Consumer Law Center, an advocacy group for student loan borrowers and other consumers, had even stronger words for borrowers in a blog post earlier this week.

It is very likely that some borrowers’ account information, including qualifying payment counts, may be inaccurately reported on studentaid.gov or may not be reported at all for some time after the processing pause… we strongly advise borrowers to download all PSLF payment count and tracking information from MOHELA by April 30th.

National Consumer Law Center

“It is very likely that some borrowers’ account information, including qualifying payment counts, may be inaccurately reported on studentaid.gov or may not be reported at all for some time after the processing pause,” said the center. “Therefore, as mentioned above, we strongly advise borrowers to download all PSLF payment count and tracking information from MOHELA by April 30th, as that information may not be available or accessible on MOHELA’s website during and after the processing pause.”

What can you do during the PSLF suspension?

Borrowers should continue making their payments as required during the PSLF processing pause, as they will continue to be due. “Payments are still due during this pause, so continue to make payments to your loan servicer,” says the Education Department.

Borrowers can submit PSLF employment certifications during the suspension period, but those forms won’t be processed until the pause ends in July.

“Starting May 1, 2024, you can continue to submit your PSLF forms, but they will be put on hold and not processed until July,” said the department. “We encourage you to use the PSLF Help Tool to submit your forms. This will speed up processing once the transition is complete.” 

The department warns borrowers not to submit another PSLF form after the suspension period ends in July if they had already submitted one, as doing so “could cause delays.”

What can you expect after the PSLF pause ends?

Once the PSLF suspension period ends in July, borrowers should be able to access their PSLF data on StudentAid.gov through a new dashboard. But the transition may not be instant or smooth for everyone. 

The transfer could cause significant delays or errors, particularly as the Education Department implements the IDR account adjustment, which can allow borrowers to receive credit for additional qualifying PSLF payments. The department expects to wrap up the implementation of the account adjustment in July, as well.

“You might also see delays and further updates to your eligible and qualifying payment counts as a result of the payment count adjustment,” said the department.

The National Consumer Law Center also told borrowers to expect problems. “We anticipate substantial PSLF processing delays after the pause ends,” said the NCLC blog post. “Borrowers should be prepared for significant delays in processing Employment Certification Forms (ECF), updating PSLF payment counts, and processing loan forgiveness applications for eligible borrowers.” It may take “several months” for ECFs submitted during the suspension period to get processed, warned the group.

For borrowers who just submitted a PSLF form in April, this means it could take at least three to six months for the form to be processed and for the PSLF qualifying payment counts to be updated accordingly.