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Student Loan Assistance

There may be ways to lower your monthly payment and work towards loan forgiveness for your federal student loans.

Follow this guide from the Attorney General’s Student Loan Assistance Unit to learn about federal loan repayment options, including how to access debt relief opportunities like Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) and income-driven repayment plans.

Update: A federal court issued an injunction preventing the U.S. Dept. of Education from implementing the SAVE plan and parts of other income-driven repayment (IDR) plans. 

  • 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) or IDR forgiveness.
  • Although IDR application processing is currently paused, borrowers can still apply to enroll in an IDR plan or switch plans by uploading or mailing the PDF/paper application and supporting income documentation to their servicer.
    • Submitting an IDR application should result in a processing forbearance for up to 60 days. This processing forbearance will count toward PSLF and IDR forgiveness.
    • If the 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 and IDR forgiveness.
  • Borrowers enrolled in an IDR plan should be able to see their qualifying payment count in their studentaid.gov accounts – 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 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 loans.

You can use your studentaid.gov account to:

  • identify your servicer
  • see what kinds of loans you have
  • calculate and compare payments under various repayment plans
  • enroll in repayment plans
  • apply to consolidate
  • submit employment certifications for Public Service Loan Forgiveness

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. To take advantage of the new repayment options like the SAVE plan and/or to pursue Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF), borrowers need to have Direct Loans. If you don’t already have Direct Loans, you can consolidate your federal loans into the Direct Loan Program for free.

Here’s how to see what type(s) of federal loans you have: 

  • Log in to your studentaid.gov account. If you haven’t already set up an FSA ID, please create one.
  • Once logged in, you will see your account dashboard as pictured below.
  • Click "View Details."
Student Aid view details
  • Then, scroll down to the section entitled “Loan Types.” You will see different categories of loans, as shown below. 
Example image of a borrower's loan types as shown on studentaid.gov account.
  • Click on each loan category to see all your loans within the category. In the below example, there are two loans with outstanding balances. The loan circled in blue is a Direct Loan. The loan circled in red is a FFEL Program Loan. Borrowers with FFEL Program Loans may want to consider consolidating into the Direct Loan Program to access the new SAVE plan described below, and/or PSLF. Carefully review each loan category to see if it contains loan types other than Direct Loans.  
An example of the FFEL and Direct Loans contained in one loan type

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

You may be able to significantly lower your payments by enrolling in an Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) plan. IDR plans base your monthly payment on your income and family size. They also offer the possibility of government interest subsidies and loan forgiveness. There are currently four IDR plans: ICR, IBR, PAYE, and SAVE. 

You May Be Closer to IDR Forgiveness Than You Think: 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. This IDR payment count adjustment brings many borrowers closer to receiving IDR forgiveness. Your new IDR qualifying payment counts should be displayed in your studentaid.gov account, enabling you to track your progress toward IDR forgiveness. However, if you are not already enrolled in an IDR plan, you may need to enroll to see the results of the payment count adjustment. Keep in mind that to continue earning credit toward IDR forgiveness, most borrowers will need to pay in an IDR plan.

  • If you were enrolled in the REPAYE plan at the start of the pandemic, you should have been automatically placed in SAVE. 
  • You can use the U.S. Dept. of Education’s Loan Simulator to calculate your monthly payment and eligibility for the SAVE and IBR plans.  Please note that the Loan Simulator’s loan forgiveness estimates are typically incorrect because they don’t account for the payment count adjustment.

More Information:

4. Have Parent PLUS Loans? Find Out if You Can Use the Double Consolidation Loophole to Access SAVE

Parent PLUS loans aren’t eligible for the new more affordable SAVE plan or any other IDR plan. 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 can use a “double consolidation loophole” to access the SAVE plan, which is often less expensive than ICR. You must complete all the necessary consolidations by July 1, 2025 to access SAVE.  Before attempting to use the loophole, please use this chart to estimate your SAVE payments.

To learn more about how to use the loophole, you can follow our detailed instructions. 

If you need help using the loophole or can’t use the loophole due to previously consolidating all your Parent PLUS loans into a single Direct Consolidation Loan, please file a Student Loan Help Request with our Office. 

5. 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, the U.S. Dept. of Education will be giving borrowers 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 will receive loan forgiveness while others will get closer to receiving forgiveness. To benefit, you need to do two things:

  • Have consolidated any non-Direct Loans (e.g., FFELs or Perkins Loans) into the Direct Loan Program by June 30, 2024, so you have Direct Loans by September 2024 when the U.S. Dept. of Education conducts the payment count adjustment.
  • File PSLF Forms 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.

The U.S. Dept. of Education is changing how the PSLF Program is serviced. Servicing of the PSLF Program is now through the Federal Student Aid (FSA) Office and studentaid.gov rather than the previously designated servicer, MOHELA. During the transition between May – July 2024, processing of employment certifications was paused. You can now find your qualifying payment counts and certified employment periods listed in your studentaid.gov account.

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

Action Plan:

More Information:

6. 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, 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

7. 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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