Public Service Loan Forgiveness, known as PSLF, has long drawn criticism because of high ineligibility rates fueled by strict and detailed requirements and miscommunication from loan providers. Over the past several years, the Department of Education has sought to address eligibility barriers and confusion through the Temporary Expanded Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, or TEPSLF, and the limited PSLF waiver, as well as permanent regulation changes.
However, questions and concerns have grown following President Donald Trump’s executive order in March 2025 that instructed Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to “exclude organizations that engage in activities that have a substantial illegal purpose” from eligibility as PSLF employers.
The order gives several examples of such activities, among them “aiding or abetting violations of … federal immigration laws;” supporting terrorism or aiding terrorist organizations; and engaging in child abuse, including “chemical and surgical castration or mutilation of children or the trafficking of children to so-called transgender sanctuary States for purpose of emancipation from their lawful parents.”
While the order does not “effectuate any change to the program” or “have the force of law,” it has created a “chilling effect,” says Winston Berkman-Breen, legal director at the Student Borrower Protection Center. The center is an advocacy organization dedicated to protecting borrowers’ rights and ending the $1.7 trillion student loan debt crisis.
“People are now concerned that they work in a field that won’t be eligible for PSLF,” Berkman-Breen says.
It’s still unclear which fields may be affected. “It seems like a strange way to get at an organization if they were really engaged in illegal activities,” says Jill Desjean, director of policy analysis at the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. “Because if it was illegal, wouldn’t they already not qualify for PSLF? We’ll have to kind of see what comes out of negotiated rulemaking and how the department decides to pursue that.”
Here’s what borrowers should know about PSLF and how to qualify.
What Is Public Service Loan Forgiveness?
PSLF was introduced in 2007 as an incentive for more people to pursue careers in public service, in exchange getting some of their federal student loan debt erased. The program is aimed at helping borrowers who become teachers, nurses or police officers, for example.
But the forgiveness comes with other stipulations. Borrowers must make 120 qualifying monthly payments, which takes at least 10 years, while being employed full time in a qualifying job at an eligible employer. Any federal student loan debt left after that point is forgiven.
[Related:Private vs. Federal Student Loans: What’s the Difference?]
Many borrowers, however, have been stymied by the logistics of the program over the years and have lost out on forgiveness — often on a minor technicality.
A student loan payment meets requirements for PSLF if it is made after Oct. 1, 2007, under a qualifying repayment plan. Consecutive payments are not required and paying more per month does not reduce the time it takes to earn loan forgiveness.
To participate, you must be employed by a federal, state, local or tribal government organization, including the U.S. military; a nonprofit organization that is tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code; or be a full-time AmeriCorps or Peace Corps volunteer.
Nonprofits without 501(c)(3) status are still considered a qualifying employer if they offer one of the following public services: emergency management, military service, public safety, law enforcement, public interest law services, early childhood education, public service for individuals with disabilities and the elderly, public health, public library services, school library or other school-based services.
Labor unions, partisan political organizations and for-profit organizations are ineligible for PSLF.
To see if your employer meets the qualifications, use the PSLF Help Tool on the Education Department’s Federal Student Aid website.
There are certain loan and repayment plan requirements, as well. Only direct federal student loans qualify, so the Federal Family Education Loan and Federal Perkins Loan programs are not accepted unless you combine them into a federal direct consolidation loan.
As for repayment plans, there are two options: an income-driven repayment plan or the 10-year standard repayment plan. But given the 10-year timeline with the standard repayment plan, a borrower who goes that route and sticks to the plan would have no remaining balance to forgive.
The Biden administration rolled out a new income-driven repayment option, SAVE, or the Saving on a Valuable Education plan, in August 2023. In this plan, monthly payments decrease from 10% to 5% of a borrower’s discretionary income, and no one earning less than the equivalent of $15 an hour annually has to make payments.
But the SAVE plan is on pause due to lawsuits challenging it, and enrolled borrowers are in forbearance — a temporary status that allows reduced or no payments.
Those months in forbearance “do not count toward public service loan forgiveness, unlike the COVID payment pause where those months did,” Berkman-Breen says. “So if you’re a public service worker, you’re sort of stuck in limbo. … On a monthly household budget level, this seems fine or maybe even preferable. But on a long-term planning front, you can’t accumulate credit toward that cancellation for the work that you’re doing month to month to month.”
[See: How Average Student Loan Debt Has Changed in 10 Years.]
How to Apply for PSLF
It’s recommended that a borrower fill out an employer certification form annually, which requires a recent W-2 form or a federal employer identification number. The PSLF Help Tool can be used to search for qualifying employers, generate information automatically in the form and provide further clarification regarding eligibility requirements.
Borrowers who choose not to fill out the form each year will be required, prior to forgiveness, to submit employment certification for every employer they worked for while making the required monthly payments.
Digital signatures — hand-drawn, not typed — are needed from both the borrower and employer or employers. The completed form can be submitted digitally instead of being mailed or faxed.
If a borrower is approved and makes more than 120 qualifying payments, those extra payments will be refunded in most cases. Processing time after forgiveness approval varies depending on several factors, such as your number of employers or gaps in employment or payment that must be checked.
Changes to PSLF
The program has faced criticism and investigations for its high ineligibility rates. The first round of applications for an expanded PSLF were accepted and reviewed in 2017, and by June 2018, 99% of applicants had been rejected. This was often for minor details such as incomplete paperwork.
TEPSLF was created in 2018 to reduce barriers and to extend relief to borrowers of direct student loans who made some or all of their on-time, monthly payments in the wrong repayment plan. But with confusion on eligibility requirements, little funding distributed and COVID-19 challenges, the Education Department announced establishment of the limited PSLF waiver in 2021.
Between Oct. 6, 2021 and Oct. 31, 2022, any prior period of repayment qualified for PSLF, regardless of the loan program or repayment plan type. But for repayment to be valid, all nondirect federal student loans, like Perkins or FFEL program loans, needed to be consolidated into the direct loan program before the limited waiver deadline.
[Read: What You Need to Know About College Tuition Costs.]
Although the limited waiver deadline ended, regulations to improve PSLF were implemented July 1, 2023. For instance, certain periods of deferment or forbearance — such as for cancer treatment or military service — now count toward PSLF. Borrowers also receive credit for payments made late, in installments or in a lump sum, and 30 hours a week is considered the standard for full-time employment, according to the department. (See the full list of changes here.)
Even with the executive order, “it’s important for borrowers to at least know nothing has changed,” Desjean says. “Borrowers don’t need to be changing their behavior right now. ?If they’re within a year or so of PSLF eligibility, they might be in great shape because it’s quite a while to get through (the negotiated rulemaking) process. I would also hope that through (negotiated rulemaking), any changes to PSLF would be forward-looking, not retroactive.”
Help With PSLF
Given the PSLF program’s complicated nature, borrowers may refer to the FSA website to learn more about eligibility requirements — or reach out to your student loan servicer for more tailored assistance, experts advise.
“At this point, in terms of looking for assistance, you may want to go directly to your servicer rather than studentaid.gov or trying to call the Education Department,” Wood says. “That said, anecdotally, we’re hearing really excessive hold times or wait times to speak with representatives, even at loan servicers. So it’s certainly a difficult process.”
Borrowers should keep a “paper trail of everything possible,” she adds. “So receipts, bills, anything on the studentaid.gov website that you can screenshot, including things like your IDR progress. Just having that record could be potentially really helpful in the future.”
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All About Public Service Loan Forgiveness originally appeared on usnews.com
Update 05/05/25: This article was published at an earlier date and has been updated with new information.
