Articles Posted in Student loans

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Christie_1The processing of PSLF was turned over by Mohela to ED during the three months preceding July 1 and all work was paused during the transfer.  Starting July 1, ED would have re-started reviews as it was doing the calculations from that point forward.  Then the whole system paused July 1 with the pending SAVE litigation and injunctions against it and the 400 pages of regulations that were to take place July 1.  There is nothing delaying PSLF calculations and forgiveness, but ED has not restarted those for some reason.  There is a hearing Oct 24, where there may be some clarification on what ED can continue to do, but the circuit court refused to clarify its ruling about two weeks ago.  I feel that ED is not processing PSLF right now as a pollical move to throw more of the educational system into chaos.  Either way, we can’t do anything about it.

Eventually, PSLF will restart its calculations.

If you are short just a few months time, you could choose to do the 10 year standard payment which counts toward PSLF and then submit an application for PSLF discharge.  Make sure you are using the 10 year standard, not 20-30 years.  It will be higher at 10 years, but it’s the only standard payment that counts for PSLF.  If that payment is too high, and they begin re-processing IDR applications (they are paused right now), you could file a request for another IDR plan other than SAVE – such as IBR.  Finish the 120, then file the PSLF discharge application.  We were finding that paper IDR applications were being processed, but they too seem to have stopped.  Do nothing online, the entire online portals are paused.  When sending a paper application, be sure to send certified mail with tracking information.

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Believe it or not, there are still many people who are in default on their federal student loans.  The Fresh Start initiative to allow someone to cure their federal student loan default ends September 30.  The end of this month.  If you are still in default after that, you’ll face collections actions for these federal loans and it’s not pretty.  Wage garnishments – federal – so no state exemption are available.  Tax refund seizure.  Earned income tax credits gone.  Social Security offsets.  Poor credit scores.

Why not cure now?  It’s free.  Your credit report is cleared of the delinquencies.  You get IDR credit for the past 4.5 years if you went into default at the beginning of Covid for instance.  No need to consolidate or rehab.

We used to complain that there were so few ways to cure a federal student loan default.  I even called our one time ability to consolidate to Direct loans, or rehab a loan – get out of jail cards.  If we ran into someone who had done both already, sometimes the only way to cure a default was to file a Chapter 13 bankruptcy to have a plan to catch up the past due payments.  Imagine having to make more than one student loan payment per month.  It worked, but it wasn’t always pretty.

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Christie_1So you may have heard by now that all consolidation applications are being processed by Aidvantage.  The online system is completely frozen.  And that most people are being placed into forbearance while the system is frozen.  Just last week, the Department of Ed asked one of the courts for clarification of its injunction order and was told that no clarification would be forthcoming.  So we wait.  The U.S. Supreme Court will have to rule on all this.

It’s important to still move forward however.  If SAVE survives the court challenges, you want to have your Parent Plus loans in place ready to be placed into SAVE.  Even if SAVE doesn’t survive, perhaps one of the other IDR plans is better than ICR.  How do you move forward with the online system stuck, and only one servicer processing paper consolidation applications?

The key is to use snail mail – send half to Aidvantage, wait 45 days until the consolidation is done.  Then send the second half to Aidvantage to consolidate using snail mail.  Wait 45 days.  Then recombine all the Parent Plus loans in a final consolidation application sent to – you guessed it – Aidvantage.

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Christie_1Some details about the current status of PSLF – Public Service Loan Forgiveness:

  • PSLF processing and tracking is no longer handled by MOHELA —  You can get much more specific information on your PSLF progress, including a month-by-month breakdown of qualifying PSLF payments, through your account at StudentAid.gov, which is now where PSLF tracking is located.
  • Long-term forbearances can count toward PSLF under the IDR Account Adjustment. The Dept. of Ed is still in the process of implementing this — details here: studentaid.gov/announcements-events/….
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Christie_1Right now, there is a lot of confusion regarding our federal student loan program.  There are multiple federal cases and several injunctions that have pretty much frozen federal student loans.

A couple things are still working.  Total and Permanent Disability discharges of federal student loans, and filing bankruptcy on them.

We’ve written a summary published in the quarterly Cramdown publication for our readers which are primarily bankruptcy attorneys and judges in the Middle District of Florida – located here.  We discuss what’s working now in bankruptcy and how to obtain a discharge or IDR credit for Plan payments.  Please take a look and if this helps you – you can do this now and not wait for the elections or U.S. Supreme Court rulings.

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Christie_1Here’s a review posted recently about our student loan videos:

  • I wish the views on this channel were much higher. Christie is both thorough and concise. It’s the best channel on YouTube regarding student loans.

I know that it’s more confusing than normal now with all the litigation and holds put on federal student loans right now.  Processing of IDRs have been slowed considerably – and while you wait, your loans are placed into forbearance.  This forbearance may ultimately count toward IDR but it’s a mixed bag whether it will count if you ask now.

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Christie_1An email went out to federal student loan borrowers today that was rather vague.  It basically said to stay tuned.  None of us know exactly what the Biden administration is up too, other than confusing all of us, but it’s possible that they could be talking about this:

A new student loan forgiveness plan that will be geared toward four broad categories of borrowers:

  • Borrowers who have accumulated large amounts of interest.
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Christie_1PAYE and ICR for non-Parent Plus borrowers was supposed to be phased out under the SAVE regulations as of July 1. But those regulations are now blocked following the 8th Circuit’s order. So PAYE (and ICR) are available for borrowers to enroll, at least for now. But, the online IDR app is down for the foreseeable future; borrowers can apply on paper, but no IDR apps are being processed right now and borrowers should expect very long processing delays. Details here: https://www.ed.gov/save.

So if you’re having problems getting your IDR approved, this is why.  In the meantime, your loans will be placed into forbearance (which doesn’t count for IDR or PSLF).

The IDR audit or recount is still underway – but will likely be pushed back again until sometime this fall.  My guess is that the Biden administration would want that done before the elections if at all possible.

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Christie_1I had this ready to go last week, but just noticed it didn’t go out as planned.

Still reviewing the impact of this Order, but it appears to block ED from implementation or action under the 2023 IDR regs that created SAVE and several other improvements to IDR while the appeal is pending.

ED has issued a statement that borrowers presently enrolled in SAVE will be placed in an interest-free forbearance while the appeal is pending.

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Christie_1Lots of fighting over student loan forgiveness right now.

One of the big things we were (and still are) looking forward to is a change of law allowing bankruptcy debtors to obtain IDR credit for their plan payments.  Previously, many debtors did not receive such credit because the Department of Education automatically placed student loans in forbearance.  We called that the “False Start” instead of Fresh Start because while a bankruptcy could offer solutions for car loans, foreclosures, and credit card debt, there was not much available for those with student loans.  Instead the balance owed was often much larger after the bankruptcy was over.  That has now changed!!

A new bankruptcy forbearance provision was included as part of a set of regulations that were to implement the SAVE plan.  On June 24, judges in two separate cases involving the SAVE IDR plan, entered preliminary injunctions enjoining some of the regulations from going into effect.

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