Worried about paying a student loan? Well, in that case, there’s good news for you!! President Joe Biden is considering wide-scale student loan cancellation to ease the students who are not able to pay the lump sum amount’ however, there could be limitations for the same. Remember that not all students are eligible for this facility and you will first have to check who qualifies for student loan relief before initiating the daydreaming.
President already had terminated the loan of $17 billion and these programs are still active ad available to help the students. Curious to know more? Here’s the comprehensive guide covering every single detail of the student loan forgiveness process. Scroll down the page to the end and check if you are lucky enough to enjoy this government scheme.
What is loan forgiveness?
Before you jump to any conclusion, let’s first find out what exactly is loan forgiveness. It refers to the process in which you are no longer required to repay some or all of your loans. The terms forgiveness, cancellation, or discharge are nearly the same things; however, they can be used in different ways to elaborate on different meanings.
Speaking of the explanation, loan forgiveness is when you are not required to pay the loan due to your job, but if you are not able to repay the loan owing to other circumstances, like total or permanent disability or the closure of the school, this is usually called discharge.
Types of Student Loan Forgiveness
So now that you are aware of student loan forgiveness, let’s find out its different types to understand the term a bit more. Below is mentioned a quick view of several types of federal student loans.
- Public Service Loan Forgiveness
Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) is a federal program that allows certain borrowers who have qualified loans to have their debts forgiven after they have made 120 consecutive payments on those loans. This program is applied to those who are employed by a government or not-for-profit organization.
- Teacher Loan Forgiveness
If you are a teacher in the United States and have been teaching for at least 10 years, you may be eligible for teacher loan forgiveness. To be eligible, you must have completed five complete, consecutive years in a low-income elementary school. Also, you may be eligible for forgiveness of up to $17,500 on your Direct Loan.
- Closed School Discharge
If your school shuts down while you are still admitted or soon after you withdraw, you can apply for discharge of federal student loan.
- Perkins Loan Cancellation and Discharge
It is available only for Federal Perkins loans and you may be eligible to have all or a portion of the loan canceled or discharged.
- Total and Permanent Disability Discharge
If unfortunately, you got disabled totally and permanently, in that case, you can qualify for discharge of your federal student loans.
- Borrower Defense to Repayment
This kind of loan forgiveness is applicable on direct loans and you may be eligible based on borrower defense if you took out loans to attend a school.
However, you must remember the fact that discharge or cancellation varies depending on when you received your loan.
- Unpaid Refund Discharge
It is available for direct loans and FFEL program loans. It may be applicable if you withdrew from school and the institute didn’t make a required loan refund to the loan servicer.
How to Apply For Student Loan Forgiveness?
Are you ready to get started? Here’s a complete guide to applying for student loan forgiveness. Follow the steps and carry out the process with ease.
- Contact the loan servicer
First of all, you will have to contact your loan servicer, if you think that you are totally eligible for the student loan forgiveness plan. If you want to cancel or discharge Perkins Loan, then you should contact the school that made the loan to carry forward the process.
- Loan Payments During the Application Review Period
- Depending on the type of forgiveness you are applying for, you may have to make payments during your application review.
- To know more about the process, you must have to consult your loan provider and find out whether you must continue making payments during the application review period or stop doing so.
- If the application gets approved
- So, if you have applied for the loan forgiveness and your application got approved to discharge the complete amount of your loan, you will not be obligated to make loan payments. However, if the approved application forgives only a portion of your loan, then you will be responsible for repaying the remaining balance.
- Also, if you qualify for certain types of loan forgiveness or discharge, you may also receive a refund of some or all payments you have made in the past.
- The best thing is that if the loan was in default, the discharge may erase the default status, which further helps you to apply for other loans in the future if needed.
- What if your application is denied?
- If your application is denied, owing to any circumstance, you will then be fully responsible for repaying your loan, based on the terms and conditions, you have signed with the loan servicer.
- However, if you believe that your application was denied in error, look no further and contact your loan servicer immediately for more information.
Conclusion
That’s all about it!! We hope you have now understood the student loan forgiveness and its complete process. Student loan forgiveness is a government program that allows people to have their student loan debts forgiven. There are a few requirements that must be met in order to qualify, but the process is relatively easy and can be done in just a few steps.
Once the requirements are met, the borrower will need to submit an application and provide proof of meeting the qualifications. The application can be submitted online or through the mail. Hope this guide would help you wave off your some or full loan amount. For more updates, stay tuned with us.
