I am one of these fed employees who stayed with the govt since 2007 because I thought I could get my loans forgiven. I have been offered positions for double and triple my salary plus benefits outside the govt but turned them down in part because of this program and because I love my job and what I do for the people of the United States. My parents saved no money for me to go to school - I was on my own and I worked 25 hours a week during school and full time in summers but still needed to take out a lot of loans. My grades suffered and it took 5 years to graduate. I applied for PSLF last October 2017 and was denied finally this month (1 year later!) because of my loan type (graduated). They told me to start the 10 years all over but now I dont qualify for income based so there is no point. I applied for the $350 million pot but was denied because they said i havent been officially denied by PSLF. I am just so angry at the system. Because of student loans my life has been delayed by 15 years. Now my main goal is to pay this off and make sure my daughter doesnt go through this by stocking her 529 plan. No loans for her!
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So local police and teachers making well into six figures with gold plated benefits and million dollar pensions are also eligible for tuition programs? Wow!
4
What teacher makes six figures? None in my state, that's for sure. Six figures would be three times my salary. This program also requires that one works in a high-poverty or high-need area; teachers at private schools that might pay more do not qualify. Given the enormous investment it takes to become certified as a teacher, coupled with the fact that salaries in this field are much lower than careers that require a similar amount of education, this program is only making it somewhat financially feasible to devote one's life to educating students. With 120 payments, we're still paying back the loan plus interest. The state still wins, and we have some hope of getting out of debt before we die--that is, if the government holds up its end of the bargain.
26
We should get rid of student loans and make higher education affordable
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It seems as though the only people getting money from this program are the people hired to work in it. What a ludicrous situation.
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The PSLFP program is not that complex, and personal responsibility exists for every borrower to assure that they are in the correct repayment program and receiving credit annually for qualifying employment. Ending up in a 'wrong' repayment program for years is not an equivalent of slipping on a banana peel - do people also not care to keep track on whether their credit card payment posts every month? I think probably not.
I spent countless hours, and still check in on the phone with my loan servicer to make sure I'm good to go on my payments and things are where they should be. I'm incredibly grateful to have been able to go back to school and qualify for the loan forgiveness. For this reason, and the fact it's my biggest debt, I don't take it for granted. While it's impossible to know for certain what transpired with cases mentioned in the article, they don't represent the majority of the borrowers.
And for G from NJ, I likewise don't understand why I need to pay for (and I'll take a wild guess) your air polluting, gas guzzling pick up truck with a rifle rack, the background check to obtain the rifle and other hickville - made USA great again paraphernalia. Get a life!
2
@Flagich Unless you've spoken with the majority of borrowers, how do you know this isn't the case?
When I started paying my 4 loans in 2013, FedLoan told me all I had to do was make payments every month and submit the Enrollment Verification Form once per year. I did as I was told, yet wasn't informed until 2016 that the payments I'd made would only count for 2 of my 4 loans, since the other two were not direct. So I converted my 2 loans to direct loans and started from scratch on eligible payments.
And yes, I do make sure my credit card payment posts every month, along with all my other bills. I did what I was told, what I was told was wrong, yet it's my fault, not theirs, and there's not a thing I can do about it.
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The whole student loan thing is a national disgrace. Millions of young people are unable to make a decent start in life because of the insane amount college costs, the Byzantine rules for repayment, the multiple traps and misdirections along the way, and the impossibility of getting accurate information no matter how educated one is. It’s almost as if Congress wanted to use young people as a piggy bank to compensate for their own ineptness and dishonesty.
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@ETC Isn't tuition free in Tennessee like it is in New York? But I agree with you, it should be free in other states as well.
1
Bait and switch, from a government that hates the very concept of public service. Shame.
14
it's all a game of mirrors by the government to entertain the masses
3
Does anyone really expect trump's Education Department to resolve this Orwellian quagmire of debt, incompetence and misdirection? Might as well be waiting for Godot. That is because the student loan business in this country is, like so much else, just another lousy racket. And the GOP, Betsy DeVos and their merry "loan servicers" wouldn't have it any other way. The Republican Party is not only about small government, it is also about corrupt and broken government. That is the essence of Banana Republicanism.
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@Innocent Bystander I'm no Republican and certainly no fan of our current President. However this failure started way before this administration. Hopefully will be corrected as there are many people, who at least in part, made career path choices based on this.
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I've worked in non-profits since graduating in 2010 with the average amount of debt (more than a down payment on a house). Almost everyone else I work with is saddled with similar college loan debt (ranging between 20-45k a person). Most folks in non-profits are opting away from this program because the burden of proof is so incredibly high. If you change jobs to another non-profit there is so much documentation, why cant folks just submit their EIN and length of employment and let the government verify via the IRS?
Either way, the forgiven loans are taxed at the end. Thats right, one friend is about to finish the program and will have over thirty thousand dollars 'forgiven' but taxed as extra income. He's had to save over eight thousand dollars just to pay the taxes.
This is a failed program.
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@Michael According to the Federal Student Aid official website, that's incorrect. See https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/repay-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/public....
3
I suspect that Congress never intended to really bail out very many people with modest incomes and too much educational loan debt. They just wanted to make an announcement that they would help people many voters find sympathetic (or maybe not, see the first comment) but wrote a law making it in fact impossible.
2
These articles about public service forgiveness ignore one group of people who can take advantage of this program. Doctors. Say a neurosurgery resident making $45,000 a year for 7 years with small income increases makes income based payments for 7 years and works for an academic teaching hospital which are always qualifying non profits. He has $200,000 in school debt. Graduates, first job is at a nonprofit hospital as an employee. He might still have around $200,000 in debt, maybe a little more since his income based payments were maybe just barely covering the interest (that he deducted on his taxes). Now, he makes $500,000 a year but he doesnt have to pay off $200,000 in 3 years (total of 10 years of repayments) nor does he have to do an income based repayment. He switches to a standard repayment and the payment is capped at what his 10 year plan was. Pays his payment for 3 years while working for a nonprofit, then has the rest forgiven. They talk about teachers and police officers getting this benefit but the real winner will be a doctor making $500,000 who had no problem navigating the intricacies of government rules to have a huge chunk of his debt forgiven.
6
@Steve Not sure of the point you are trying to make. This article was not about who can or cannot take advantage of public service loan forgiveness, it was the ongoing problems with the program itself for all prospective eligible participants regardless of profession. The "winners", as you characterize them, are those participants who successfully get the balance of their loans forgiven despite the cards being stacked against them- apparently a very small group. As a result of the the protracted length of training required in residencies like neurosurgery, cardio-thoracic etc, the amount a time spent at non -profit (teaching hospitals) naturally runs much closer to the 10 years of working at a non profit then other professions, or even other areas of medicine like primary care, which is only a 3 year residency after the 4 years of medical school.
2
And why should the American public cover education costs for federal employees? Why segregate one part of the population and exclude others? Are we to assume only fed workers pulled themselves up by the bootstraps to obtain better education? I worked nights and weekends to afford both under-grad and grad school. I save for my kids college and live within my means. These are the life skills being lost with current generation. The Baby Boomers had it right - work hard, play hard, live within your means.
3
@James C. Did you ever look at what college cost for the boomers in the 60's and 70's? I do because my parents could afford to pay for it out of a comfortable but not extravagant income. No loans for me. Some "less fortunate" friends had parents who could only pay for tuition and they paid their living expenses with a summer job and a bit of work in term-time. Try that now. I agree, education should be affordable for all students, then there would be no need to "segregate one part of the population". Or make up convoluted plans that don't serve the people.
11
This is basically more hassle than it is worth! I tried to inquire about this a couple of years and found out my payment plan now is cheaper than what would be offered here! In addition I have made so many payments and they would not even consider those payments essentially having to start the clock all over again! By the time they figure this out I will have paid off my student loan already!!
5
The program was fatally flawed from the start. The intentions were well meaning, but it lured people who thought a career in public service would allow them to obtain an education. What a shock it must have been to learn that they were now on the hook, despite information they received and on which they based their decisions. Our countries collective student loan debt remains one of our society's greatest looming financial crises.
6
The difficulty is probably deliberate.
Higher education has become a racket.
2
Back of the envelope math computes this entire relief fund ($350 million) as 0.022% of the $1.5 trillion tax cut - almost all to the rich and corporations - if that amount had been divided and sent to the original 28k loan forgiveness applicants, each would receive $53.5 million, certainly covering the loans!
12
I do not understand why I need to pay for the schooling of "Jolie von Suhr, a psychologist in a state psychiatric hospital in Lakewood, Wash."
She probably makes a lot more than I do.
13
@GI don't get why I have to pay for Donald Trump, President of the US's trips to his properties, and to his political rallies. He makes a lot more than I do.
I think that money could help a lot of students out.
1
@G Probably for the same reason California taxes pay for half the country. If paying taxes were about strict equity, we'd keep it and build our own roads and bridges.
1
First of all, since she is a State employee it’s unlikely she makes more than you. Secondly, she would also make more in the private sector. But the bottom line is that she, like my daughter, entered into a contract with the State: your loans will be forgiven after 10 years of public service. My daughter has accepted lower salaries and relocated to another city 3 hours away for her job, as I’m sure many others have. It is wrong to deny them the settlement after the fact.
21