New changes to two federal student loan programs will immediately wipe out debts for 40,000 borrowers and bring 3.6 million closer to relief, the Education Department said Tuesday.
The changes will “fix long-standing failures” in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) and income-driven repayment (IDR) programs, department officials said. Once the changes are implemented, 40,000 borrowers will have their debts erased under the PSLF program. More than 3.6 million borrowers will also receive at least three years of additional credit toward IDR forgiveness.
Specifically, the department said it is working to end what it called “forbearance steering,” the practice of loan service companies pushing borrowers into forbearance rather than helping them access an IDR plan.
…