They were getting closer to student-loan forgiveness. Then their progress was stripped away.
Student-loan borrowers enrolled in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program are reporting that their progress toward debt relief has been reversed due to federal coding errors. The Department of Education acknowledged the inaccuracies but has not provided a timeline for resolution, leaving many borrowers with extended repayment periods.
Why it matters
This highlights significant administrative failures in federal student loan management, directly impacting the financial stability and trust of thousands of public service workers.
Some student-loan borrowers lost payments toward the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. Dan Kitwood/Getty Images; Alyssa Powell/BI Public Service Loan Forgiveness promises student-debt relief after 10 years of qualifying payments. The Trump administration recently removed some student-loan borrowers' PSLF payments, citing coding errors under Biden. "My life has basically been hijacked," one borrower said. Christina Quinones was two payments away from reaching the threshold for student-loan forgiveness. She'd spent nine years and 10 months pursuing Public Service Loan Forgiveness , which forgives student debt for government and nonprofit workers after 10 years of qualifying payments. Quinones, who works in a Texas school district, was looking forward to the relief she believed was coming soon. Then she got a letter from her servicer this summer: her 118 qualifying payments were decreased to 98, tacking on nearly two more years to her path to loan forgiveness.
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