Public Service Loan Forgiveness

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program was created to encourage individuals to enter and continue to work full-time in public service jobs. Under this program, you may qualify for forgiveness of the remaining balance due on your eligible federal student loans after you have made 120 payments on loans under certain repayment plans while employed full time by certain public service employers.

Only non-defaulted loans made under the William D. Ford Direct Loan Program are eligible for loan forgiveness. The Direct Loan Program includes the following types of loans:

• Federal Direct Stafford/Ford Loans (Direct Subsidized Loans)
• Federal Direct Unsubsidized Stafford / Ford Loans (Direct Unsubsidized Loans)
• Federal Direct PLUS Loans (Direct PLUS Loans)- for parents and graduate or professional students
• Federal Direct Consolidation Loans (Direct Consolidation Loans)

Although loan forgiveness under this program is available only for loans made and repaid under the Direct Loan Program, loans made under other federal student loan programs may qualify for forgiveness if they are consolidated into a Direct Consolidation Loan. Therefore, only payments made on the Direct Consolidation Loan will count toward the required 120 monthly payments.

The 120 required payments must be made under one or more of the following Direct Loan Program repayment plans:

• Income Based Repayment (IBR) Plan
• Income Contingent Repayment Plan
• Standard Repayment Plan with a 10-year repayment period
• Any other Direct Loan Program repayment plan, but only payments that are at least equal to the monthly payment amount that would have been required under the Standard Repayment Plan with a 10-year repayment period may be counted toward the required 120 payments.

Go to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness fact sheet for more information on the terms and conditions of the program and to understand what types of public service jobs qualify.