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Student Loan Assistance

There may be ways to lower your federal student loan payment, work toward loan forgiveness, and avoid negative credit reporting and default.

Due to the pandemic, payments were paused on loans owned by the U.S. Dept. of Education from March 2020 until Aug. 2023. When repayment resumed, the U.S. Dept. of Education offered an “on-ramp” period in which it did not report missed payments to credit reporting agencies. This “on-ramp” ended Sept. 30, 2024, and if you missed your next payment, your loan became delinquent.

If your loan is delinquent for 90 days or more, the missed payments will be reported to the credit bureaus. After a loan is delinquent for 270 days, it enters default. If the loan remains in default, the U.S. Dept. of Education can take your federal tax refunds, garnish a portion of your wages, and even take part of your Social Security benefits—without ever taking you to court.  

The U.S. Dept. of Education is resuming involuntary collection activities on defaulted federal loans. Federal tax refund interception is now underway and wage garnishments will begin later this summer.

  • If your federal loans defaulted before the pandemic and you have not taken steps to get out of default, there may be ways to get your loans back into good standing, as described below.
  • If your federal loans are delinquent, you can learn below how to identify and contact your servicer to discuss your options.  You can also apply for an income-driven repayment plan on the U.S. Dept. of Education's website.

Meanwhile, a federal court injunction is preventing the U.S. Dept. of Education from implementing the SAVE plan and parts of other income-driven repayment (IDR) plans.

  • Income-driven repayment (IDR) is a term used to describe several repayment plans that use your income and family size to calculate your monthly payment. These plans include: SAVE (formerly REPAYE), IBR, ICR, and PAYE.
  • If you are enrolled in SAVE, your loans should be in an interest-free forbearance.
    • Time spent in this interest-free forbearance does not count toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF).
  • As of March 26, 2025, the online IDR application is once again available. You can apply for Income-Based Repayment (IBR), Pay As You Earn (PAYE), and Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR). Servicers have begun processing applications, but there is a backlog.
    • Submitting an IDR application should result in a processing forbearance for up to 60 days. This processing forbearance will count toward PSLF.
    • If your IDR application is not processed within 60 days, an interest-free forbearance should be applied until the application is processed. This forbearance does not count toward PSLF.
  • If you are enrolled in an IDR plan, you should be able to see your IDR qualifying payment count in your studentaid.gov account – including the results of the payment count adjustment.
    • Forgiveness as a feature of SAVE, PAYE, and ICR is currently paused.
    • Forgiveness is still being processed for borrowers enrolled in IBR who have reached 300 qualifying payments. IBR was separately enacted by Congress.
  • You can find updates and more detailed information about the effects of the SAVE litigation on the U.S. Dept. of Education's website.
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1. Set Up and Review Your Studentaid.gov Account

Studentaid.gov is the U.S. Dept. of Education’s main website for federal student aid and a vital tool for managing your federal student loans.

You can use your studentaid.gov account to:

  • identify your servicer
  • see what loan types you have and who owns them
  • calculate and compare payments under various repayment plans
  • enroll in income-driven repayment (IDR) plans
  • find out how many qualifying payments you have toward IDR forgiveness
  • find out how many qualifying payments you have toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF)
  • certify your qualifying employment for PSLF
  • apply to consolidate your loans

If you haven’t already done so, you should also set up your online account with your federal loan servicer.

When you go to studentaid.gov, you’ll be prompted to sign in with your Federal Student Aid (FSA) ID and Password. If you don’t have an FSA ID, please make one. For help setting up your FSA ID or accessing your account, call the U.S. Dept. of Education at 1-800-433-3243.

2. Find Out Your Loan Types

There are several types of federal loans, including Direct Loans, Federal Family Education Loans (FFELs), and Perkins Loans. Some borrowers have a mix of federal loan types. Additionally, while most federal loans are owned by the U.S. Dept. of Education, some are owned by private lenders.

Borrowers need Direct Loans to access certain income-driven repayment plans (including ICR and PAYE) and/or to pursue Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF). If you don’t already have Direct Loans, you can consolidate your federal loans into the Direct Loan Program for free. However, under regulations in effect after a February 2025 court order, consolidating will restart the clock on forgiveness for income-driven repayment (IDR) plans.

More Information:

3. Can’t Afford Your Payments or Want to Earn Credit Toward IDR Forgiveness? Explore IDR Plans

You may be able to lower your payments by enrolling in an income-driven repayment (IDR) plan. IDR plans use your income and family size to calculate your monthly payment. Some IDR plans also offer the possibility of government interest subsidies and loan forgiveness after 20 or 25 years. There are four IDR plans: ICR, IBR, PAYE, and SAVE. (SAVE used to be known as REPAYE.) A court order is currently blocking the U.S. Dept. of Education from operating SAVE or processing forgiveness under SAVE, PAYE, and ICR.

Find Out How Many Qualifying Payments You Have Toward IDR Forgiveness: As part of a debt relief initiative known as the payment count adjustment, in October 2024, borrowers with federally owned loans (e.g., Direct Loans) received credit toward IDR forgiveness for many of their past payments and certain forbearances and deferments that would not normally count toward forgiveness. This IDR payment count adjustment brought many borrowers closer to IDR forgiveness. If you are already enrolled in an IDR plan, your IDR payment counts should now be displayed in your studentaid.gov account, enabling you to see how close you are to IDR forgiveness.

  • If you are not presently enrolled in an IDR plan, you can find your qualifying payment counts by logging in to your studentaid.gov account and clicking the “view details” button in the middle of the page. This will take you to your loan details. On the right side, you will see “Interested in IDR Plans?” Click the “Learn More” button and scroll down. You will then see how many qualifying payments you’ve made and how many more payments are needed to reach forgiveness under the different IDR plans. 

Keep in mind that to continue earning credit toward IDR forgiveness, you typically need to enroll in an IDR plan.  To find out your eligibility for the different IDR plans and see your monthly payment estimates, start an IDR application on the U.S. Dept. of Education’s website.

Due to a court order, forgiveness is currently only being processed for borrowers enrolled in IBR.

More Information:

4. Can't Afford Income-Driven Payments?

There are several other options to consider if your payments under income-driven plans are not affordable. 

  • Consider filing taxes separately. If you are married and file joint tax returns, you may want to consider filing separate tax returns. If you file taxes separately, only your income will be used to calculate your IDR payment.
  • If you and your spouse both have federal loans, your overall payment may be more affordable if you both pay in IDR. You can read more about special considerations for married borrowers on the U.S. Dept. of Education’s website.
  • Extend your repayment term.  The standard repayment term for most unconsolidated federal loans is ten years. There may be several ways to extend this time. Extending your loan’s repayment term will lower your payments (sometimes dramatically) but will result in higher total loan costs.
    • If you have more than $30,000 in federal student loans, you may be eligible for an extended repayment plan, which may allow you to make payments over up to 25 years. You can request an extended plan by contacting your servicer. Alternatively, you can find the Repayment Plan Request form in the U.S. Dept. of Education’s Forms Library, located under “Loan Repayment,” and submit it to your servicer.
    • Consolidating may be another way to extend your repayment term. The length of time you will have to pay depends on the size of your consolidation loan. For example, a Direct Consolidation Loan with a balance over $60,000 comes with a 30-year repayment term.  Keep in mind, however, that consolidating restarts the clock on income-driven repayment (IDR) forgiveness, including wiping out any IDR credit you received through the payment count adjustment. Consolidating also adds any outstanding interest to your loan balance. Learn more about the pros and cons of consolidation on the U.S. Dept. of Education’s website.
    • Please note: payments made on a standard consolidation and/or extended plan after Oct. 2024 will not count toward PSLF or IDR forgiveness. 
  • Beware of graduated plans.  Payments under graduated plans start out low but increase every two years. Graduated plans have higher total loan costs and may become unaffordable in the long run.
  • As a last resort, use deferment or forbearance to temporarily pause payments. If you’re facing a short term financial hardship, you can request to temporarily pause your payments through deferment or forbearance. Keep in mind that interest accrues on unsubsidized loans during deferment and on both subsidized and unsubsidized loans during forbearance. Prolonged use of forbearance or deferment can substantially add to your loan costs.   

5. Have Parent PLUS Loans?

Parent PLUS loans aren’t eligible for any IDR plans. However, after they are consolidated, Parent PLUS Loans become eligible for the Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR) plan. Additionally, if you have at least one Parent PLUS Loan and one other federal loan (of any type, including another Parent PLUS Loan), you may be able to use a “double consolidation loophole” to access other IDR plans. However, due to the ongoing SAVE litigation, it’s not clear whether the loophole will continue to work.    

More Information:

Learn more about the double consolidation loophole on the Attorney General’s website. 

6. Work for the Government or a Nonprofit? Learn About PSLF

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program forgives the remaining balance on your Direct Loans after you’ve made 120 monthly payments under a qualifying repayment plan, while working at least 30 hours per week for the government or certain types of nonprofit employers. The payments do not need to be consecutive.

To help public service workers get closer to receiving forgiveness, last year the U.S. Dept. of Education gave borrowers with Direct Loans credit toward PSLF for past repayment periods and certain deferments and forbearances that would not otherwise count toward forgiveness. Through this payment count adjustment, some public service workers received loan forgiveness while others got closer to forgiveness.

To benefit from the PSLF payment count adjustment, you had to consolidate any non-Direct Loans (e.g., FFELs or Perkins Loans) into the Direct Loan Program by June 30, 2024. You must also file a PSLF Form to certify your Employment. The U.S. Dept. of Education can’t give you credit for your public service if it doesn’t know about it! If you don’t have approved employment certifications on file for all your past qualifying employment periods since the Oct. 1, 2007 start date of the PSLF Program, file a PSLF Form to certify your employment. There is not currently a deadline to file employment certifications.          

  • Please use the U.S. Dept. of Education’s PSLF Help Tool to certify your employment, including the Tool’s e-signature option. Manually signed paper and PDF forms are taking months to process. Once your employment is certified, you will be able to see how close to forgiveness you are in your studentaid.gov account.

In July 2024, the U.S. Dept. of Education changed how the PSLF Program is serviced. Servicing is now through the Federal Student Aid (FSA) Office and studentaid.gov rather than the previously designated servicer, MOHELA. You can now find your qualifying payment counts and certified employment periods in your studentaid.gov account. Learn more about how to view and manage your PSLF progress on the U.S. Dept. of Education’s website.

To keep earning credit toward PSLF, most public service workers need to enroll in an Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) plan.

Action Plan:

  • Find out if you have Direct Loans by checking your studentaid.gov account or calling the U.S. Dept. of Education at 1-800-433-3243.
  • If you have any non-Direct Loans, consider applying to consolidate them, so that they can become eligible for PSLF. Keep in mind that if you consolidate only non-Direct Loans, you will have to make 120 qualifying monthly payments while working at least 30 hours per week after consolidating to qualify for PSLF.
  • Use the U.S. Dept. of Education’s PSLF Help Tool to certify all your qualifying employment since Oct. 1, 2007, including the Tool’s e-signature option. Manually signed paper and PDF forms are taking months to process.
  • Enroll in an IDR plan to continue earning credit toward forgiveness. 

More Information:

7. Are Your Federal Loans in Default? Learn How to Return Them to Good Standing

When a federal student loan is delinquent for 270 days, it goes into default. Default can further damage your credit, increase the total cost of your loan, and lead to wage garnishment, tax refund interception, and interception of other federal benefits, including Social Security benefits.

If you’re uncertain whether your loans are in default, log in to your studentaid.gov account to find out. If you have not made payments since the start of the pandemic payment pause in March 2020, there’s a good chance that your loans are delinquent and will soon default. If they are not yet in default, it’s important to contact your servicer immediately. Keep in mind that a new company may be servicing your loans, as many loans changed servicers during the pandemic. Your studentaid.gov account will identify your servicer’s name and contact information. You can either pay the past due amount or request a forbearance to cover the delinquency. If you cannot afford your payments, you can apply for an income-driven repayment (IDR) plan on the U.S. Dept. of Education’s website.

If your loans are already in default, there are two ways to get out of default: rehabilitation or consolidation. Typically, you can only use each method once. So, if you default three times, your loans may be stuck in default. 

Consolidation is the faster path out of default. When you consolidate, your existing loan(s) are paid off by a new Direct Consolidation Loan. However, consolidating results in outstanding interest being added to your loan balance and restarts the clock on income-driven repayment (IDR) forgiveness.

  • You can apply to consolidate on the U.S. Dept. of Education’s website. To consolidate out of default without first making three payments, you will need to apply for an income-driven repayment plan as part of your consolidation application.
    • If you already have a Direct Consolidation Loan, and do not have other loans to add to a new consolidation loan, you cannot consolidate out of default.
    • If you are in wage garnishment, you cannot consolidate out of default.

Rehabilitation typically requires nine months of payments after signing a written agreement.

  • If you rehabilitate out of default, the record of the default is removed from your credit report (the late payments prior to default are not removed).
  • Wage garnishment and Treasury offset (e.g., tax refund offset) may continue until you have made five payments under the rehabilitation agreement.
  • To get started, you can call the U.S. Dept. of Education’s Default Resolution Group at 1-800-621-3115.
  • Please note that if you are sending the U.S. Dept. of Education your tax return to get a rehabilitation agreement, you will need to sign it, even if you filed your taxes electronically.
  • If the rehabilitation payments being offered are unaffordable, ask about filling out a Loan Rehabilitation: Income and Expense form to get a lower payment.
  • After you have received a written rehabilitation agreement, you must sign and return it.

You can learn more about how to rehabilitate or consolidate out of default on the U.S. Dept. of Education’s website. You can also call the U.S. Dept. of Education’s Default Resolution Group at 1-800-621-3115.

8. Did You Receive a Notice of Treasury Offset?

If your federal loans are in default, the U.S. Treasury can take your federal tax refunds and a portion of your Social Security payments (including Social Security disability benefits) or other federal benefits – to pay your federal loans. This is called Treasury offset.

Treasury offsets for defaulted federal loans resumed on May 5, 2025. Typically, before Treasury offset begins, you will receive a written notice. To prevent offset, you must take action by the deadline specified in the notice. Beware of mail from scammers pretending to be the federal government or a federal loan guaranty agency – do a quick online search to confirm any phone number in the letter is for the U.S. Dept. of Education (e.g., Default Resolution Group) or a guaranty agency.

For most borrowers, the easiest way to avoid offset will be to get out of default through consolidation or rehabilitation.

  • If you submit an application to consolidate your defaulted federal student loan(s) into a Direct Consolidation Loan, to avoid offset, you must submit the application by the date listed on the notice of intent to offset.
  • If you enter into a written rehabilitation agreement, to avoid offset, you must make the first payment by the date listed in your notice of intent to offset. You may be able to call the U.S. Dept. of Education's Default Resolution Group to start setting up a rehabilitation agreement at 1-800-621-3115.
  • If you cannot rehabilitate or consolidate your loans out of default, you can still stop the offset by entering into a repayment agreement and making the first payment by the date listed on the notice of intent to offset.

You can also learn about how to make an objection to the offset on the U.S. Dept. of Education’s website. For example, reasons for objection can include:

  • You are disabled and previously submitted a Total and Permanent Disability application -- or are including an application with the objection.
  • You are asserting a borrower defense based on misconduct by your school, and you previously submitted or are enclosing a completed application for borrower defense to repayment.
  • You entered into a repayment agreement, such as a rehabilitation agreement, and made the first payment by the due date required in the notice of intent to offset.

9. File a Complaint with the Ombudsman's Student Loan Assistance Unit

If you live in Massachusetts and have a complaint against a student loan servicer or need help getting out of default, you can file a Student Loan Help Request with the Ombudsman’s Student Loan Assistance Unit. Please describe your complaint in as much detail as possible.

If you don’t live in Massachusetts, you can’t file a complaint with our Office. Instead, you can contact other state and federal agencies for help.

Student Loan Help Request forms are reviewed in the order in which they are received. It is important that you continue to meet any deadlines while you are waiting to hear from us. If your request would be better handled by a different government agency, we will refer you to that agency.

The Attorney General's Office cannot provide legal advice or act as your attorney. If you have questions concerning the specific application or interpretation of the law, please consult with a private attorney.

While waiting to hear from us, we encourage you to collect information about your federal student loans by creating an account on the U.S. Dept. of Education’s website at studentaid.gov. Once logged in to your account, you will see a full list of your federal student loans, along with servicer contact information, loan types, interest rates, principal and interest balances, and other information that will help clarify your repayment options and the steps needed to access debt relief. Private student loans are not tracked by the U.S. Dept. of Education but may be listed on your credit report. You can obtain a free copy of your credit report once a year from each of the three major credit reporting agencies.

Additional Resources

10. Avoid Scams

Student loan “debt relief” companies charge fees for helping student loan borrowers access federal loan debt relief programs. There is nothing these companies can do for you that you can’t do on your own for free! If anyone contacts you asking for your personal information (like your FSA ID and password), your bank account information, or money to help you access debt relief—they’re trying to scam you. Visit the U.S. Dept. of Education’s website to learn more about the warning signs of a debt relief scam.

U.S. Dept. of Education Resources

Additional Resources

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