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Post by okthen on Oct 7, 2021 21:11:06 GMT -5
Interesting reading, as when I started at SSA (more than 10 years ago, but after 2008), I specifically asked about student loan forgiveness and was told it did not apply to SSA as we "made too much money". I am feeling very foolish at this point for simply taking the statement at face value. Similar - this was as a GS12 for me, and I was already considered to be “makinf too much money.” In fact, I spoke on the phone with one of the reps for quite a while and was told that they would consider my spouse’s income, but none of her own school loan debt. When we did the numbers on my repayment schedule, it would have tripled my payments (at a higher interest rate), and paid off the loan at the 10 year mark.
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Post by intothewild on Oct 7, 2021 23:22:33 GMT -5
This is my understanding and I am in a similar situation. I never applied for the PSLF program because the monthly payment was way too high and I would have them paid off in a few years with nothing left to forgive. I called yesterday and the operators had no information beyond what was announced in the news. On the studentaid.gov website, there is a section about this forgiveness and a PSLF form to complete. They will certify your employment and go through all of your payments to determine what was a qualifying payment. They will then let you know if you've met the 10 years or how many qualifying payments are left. It seems like many more people may qualify under these updated changes, so there may be a long wait. One interesting thing is that if you already have a direct loan, this time period of forbearance counts toward qualifying payments even if you have not made a payment in the past 1.5 years. The operator told me this info and I am hoping it is true! Also, if you need to consolidate to a direct loan, it must be done by Oct. 31st. Good luck to all of us and may the odds ever be in our favor!! This is me too. My fear is that I consolidate and they go “oops, not for you even though you have a FFEL loan,” or worse, I’m required to make the new consolidated loan payment in the many months while they are processing the forgiveness, which results in my payment doubling. My husband is in the same boat. We both have 15 + years with the govt and doubling both our monthly loan payments would bankrupt us. This is what scares me. What if you consolidate it in the direct loan program than they claim you don’t qualify? I’m terrified I will be stuck at a higher payment. Before all these recent changes I have spoken with many friends who were told they don’t qualify. I’m trying to be optimistic, but I’m not sure I entirely trust this program. I hope I’m proven wrong. Federal loans + Ten years of public service should be all that is required.
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Post by badger on Oct 8, 2021 6:23:46 GMT -5
This is me too. My fear is that I consolidate and they go “oops, not for you even though you have a FFEL loan,” or worse, I’m required to make the new consolidated loan payment in the many months while they are processing the forgiveness, which results in my payment doubling. My husband is in the same boat. We both have 15 + years with the govt and doubling both our monthly loan payments would bankrupt us. This is what scares me. What if you consolidate it in the direct loan program than they claim you don’t qualify? I’m terrified I will be stuck at a higher payment. Before all these recent changes I have spoken with many friends who were told they don’t qualify. I’m trying to be optimistic, but I’m not sure I entirely trust this program. I hope I’m proven wrong. Federal loans + Ten years of public service should be all that is required. For everyone in this position, I would wait a few months. You have until October 2022 to consolidate, so you have some time to get these questions answered. Under the current system you receive a refund for any overpayments past your 120th payment. Hopefully that is the case here. I would also check out the repayment calculator. There have been additional repayment plans added since you took out ffel loans, so there is a chance that a direct loan is a cheaper monthly payment. Remember that payments are based on AGI, so you can exclude a lot of income when doing the calculations.
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Post by ba on Oct 8, 2021 7:02:35 GMT -5
This is what scares me. What if you consolidate it in the direct loan program than they claim you don’t qualify? I’m terrified I will be stuck at a higher payment. Before all these recent changes I have spoken with many friends who were told they don’t qualify. I’m trying to be optimistic, but I’m not sure I entirely trust this program. I hope I’m proven wrong. Federal loans + Ten years of public service should be all that is required. For everyone in this position, I would wait a few months. You have until October 2022 to consolidate, so you have some time to get these questions answered. Under the current system you receive a refund for any overpayments past your 120th payment. Hopefully that is the case here. I would also check out the repayment calculator. There have been additional repayment plans added since you took out ffel loans, so there is a chance that a direct loan is a cheaper monthly payment. Remember that payments are based on AGI, so you can exclude a lot of income when doing the calculations. The only negative for waiting and seeing is that if you have already exceeded 120 payments, and pre-consolidation payments will not be possible overpayments. Overpayments after the determined forgiveness date are returned to the borrower when the loans are direct loans.
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ergo
Member
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Post by ergo on Oct 8, 2021 9:05:02 GMT -5
Additionally, President Biden has extended federal student loan forbearance through January 2022. I was told that my FFEL loans didn’t qualify. However, if I consolidate into a direct loan, perhaps I can defer for a couple of months while they confirm my 120 months of payments. Thoughts?
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Post by ba on Oct 8, 2021 9:40:15 GMT -5
Additionally, President Biden has extended federal student loan forbearance through January 2022. I was told that my FFEL loans didn’t qualify. However, if I consolidate into a direct loan, perhaps I can defer for a couple of months while they confirm my 120 months of payments. Thoughts? That would be correct. However, once you are in a direct loan, you are entitled to an overpayment for any payments you make in excess of the 120 after you have a direct loan.
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Post by jagvet on Oct 8, 2021 10:24:58 GMT -5
I'm feeling old. I paid off my student loan about 35 years ago. It was $5,000. Now I guess I'll have to pay y'alls', too.
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ergo
Member
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Post by ergo on Oct 8, 2021 10:58:05 GMT -5
Safe space travels next week jagvet!
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Post by marathon on Oct 8, 2021 12:35:59 GMT -5
For everyone in this position, I would wait a few months. You have until October 2022 to consolidate, so you have some time to get these questions answered. Under the current system you receive a refund for any overpayments past your 120th payment. Hopefully that is the case here. I would also check out the repayment calculator. There have been additional repayment plans added since you took out ffel loans, so there is a chance that a direct loan is a cheaper monthly payment. Remember that payments are based on AGI, so you can exclude a lot of income when doing the calculations. The only negative for waiting and seeing is that if you have already exceeded 120 payments, and pre-consolidation payments will not be possible overpayments. Overpayments after the determined forgiveness date are returned to the borrower when the loans are direct loans. So I submitted my consolidation app today after figuring out I can back out if I don’t like the terms or if something weird happens in the interim. That said, I chatted with support who said I could expect the application to be completed in 60-90 days, but had no timeframe on the forgiveness timeline. I was told I could submit a paper PLSF application, but not electronic until the forms are updated. They also said I could contact the servicer about suspending payments until the direct loan is done and that some are doing it, some aren’t. So. Now to wait and see.
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ergo
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Post by ergo on Oct 8, 2021 14:14:54 GMT -5
Marathon,
Great information, thank you. I’ll be right there with you tomorrow.
Pixie, excellent board, as always. I would have skipped right over the student loan update w/o your “bump.” Thank you!
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Post by Pixie on Oct 8, 2021 16:55:32 GMT -5
You are welcome. Pixie
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Post by roymcavoy on Oct 8, 2021 20:15:01 GMT -5
All of you who think you shouldn’t do it because of spousal loans/increased loan payments need to talk to a tax professional before making decisions. There may be ways/reasons to make it work that you don’t appreciate. I talked with multiple federal employees who said “it doesn’t work” or “not worth it” and when I talked the scenario over with my accountant, it was clear it would work (for me).
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Post by nappyloxs on Oct 9, 2021 13:35:39 GMT -5
There are a lot of questions being asked here. The best place for PSLF info is on the DOE, Student Aid.gov websites and the r/PSLF sub on Reddit.
Like many of you I have FFEL loans, been a Fed for over 10 years, and have made over 120 payments while a Fed. My plan is to consolidate this weekend. Consolidating to direct loan is Step #1. Then I will apply for PSLF and TExxx forgiveness via the waiver as Step #2. I plan on consolidating into a extended/grad direct loan. It looks like my payment will be around $200 a month on the loan stimulator, a huge savings. If I consolidate now, my payments on the new consolidated loans will be reimbursed once everything is calculated and finalized under the waiver program. If I wait until the process is more formalized to consolidate, which will be sometime next year, the payments between now and then won’t be reimbursed. So consolidating now is best, in my situation.
Still some unknowns, but DOE provided a good FAQs and summary of the waiver. The r/PSLF sub has tons of questions and answers too.
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Post by tripper on Oct 10, 2021 17:36:53 GMT -5
I had ten years in July 2018. Applied and was told I wasn’t in the right repayment plan all that time. It made no sense to me because the loans would have been paid in ten years at the higher payment. Oh well, they are gone now.
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Post by gazoo on Oct 10, 2021 20:25:52 GMT -5
For those who have successfully applied - who signs the employment certification part of the application? Is it your direct supervisor, or does it need to go off to some HR office somewhere?
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Post by ba on Oct 11, 2021 9:51:19 GMT -5
For those who have successfully applied - who signs the employment certification part of the application? Is it your direct supervisor, or does it need to go off to some HR office somewhere? Either of those will work. Basically, it needs to be someone who has access to your timesheet and can confirm your employment period.
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Post by Burt Macklin on Oct 11, 2021 10:39:15 GMT -5
For those who have successfully applied - who signs the employment certification part of the application? Is it your direct supervisor, or does it need to go off to some HR office somewhere? Either of those will work. Basically, it needs to be someone who has access to your timesheet and can confirm your employment period. This is right. I had a wide variety of folks verifying for me over the 10 years and did not have any issue when I applied for forgiveness.
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Post by everflowing on Oct 11, 2021 20:30:11 GMT -5
I sent the employment verification form to my first line supervisor and was told to send it to payroll’s carrot box. Payroll immediately responded back with the completed form.
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Post by briscoej on Oct 12, 2021 15:00:54 GMT -5
Additionally, President Biden has extended federal student loan forbearance through January 2022. I was told that my FFEL loans didn’t qualify. However, if I consolidate into a direct loan, perhaps I can defer for a couple of months while they confirm my 120 months of payments. Thoughts? That would be correct. However, once you are in a direct loan, you are entitled to an overpayment for any payments you make in excess of the 120 after you have a direct loan. FYI - My FFEL loan was automatically placed in forbearance until January 2022 as a result of my consolidation request. I have already made over 120 payments on this loan so I had planned to call and see what my options are but received notification from the lender before I had the chance to do so.
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Post by dwesq on Oct 19, 2021 17:43:46 GMT -5
There are a lot of positive changes happening in 2021. There's a govexec article with more info.
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