Student Loan Forgiveness Payment Counts Halted By Department Of Education, Says Servicer
A major federal student loan servicer has started notifying borrowers that the Department of Education has temporarily halted the ability for borrowers to track their student loan forgiveness progress. The announcement is another setback for borrowers as the federal student loan repayment system remains plagued by dysfunction and backlogs. Meanwhile, Congress and the Trump administration have moved forward to implement massive changes to loan programs that will impact millions of Americans.
'Federal Student Aid has temporarily removed the forgiveness payment counts from StudentAid.gov for Public Service Loan Forgiveness and Income-Driven Repayment,' says an automated announcement on MOHELA's main customer service phone line for Department of Education accounts. "Unfortunately, our representatives do not have any additional information related to your forgiveness counts. Please continue to visit StudentAid.gov for updates."
Here's what we know about MOHELA's announcement, and what student loan borrowers should understand as the repayment system goes through the most significant changes in a generation.
Student Loan Forgiveness Tracking For IDR Remains Down
In January, during the last month of the Biden administration, the Department of Education launched a long-awaited feature of StudentAid.gov that allowed borrowers to track and review their progress toward student loan forgiveness under income-driven repayment plans. IDR plans provide borrowers with monthly payments tied to a formula based on income and family size, with any remaining balance eligible for loan forgiveness after 20 or 25 years in repayment. Until the IDR tracker went live, borrowers often had no idea where they stood on their progress.
The IDR tracker provided a high-level overview to borrowers of their IDR status. It showed how many months and years they had remaining until they would qualify for student loan forgiveness. And borrowers could access more detailed information showing a monthly breakdown of what was counting toward their IDR term, and what wasn't.
But last spring, the Trump administration quietly removed the IDR tracker from StudentAid.gov, leaving borrowers in the dark again about their student loan forgiveness progress. The Department of Education indicated that this was necessary to address problems with the tracker and correct inaccuracies. In addition, the removal came after a key court ruling in February that suggested that student loan forgiveness under three IDR plans – ICR, PAYE, and the new SAVE plan – was inconsistent with congressional intent. As a result, the department has blocked student loan forgiveness under these plans.
'Forgiveness as a feature of the SAVE, PAYE, and ICR Plans is currently paused, because those plans were not created by Congress,' said the department in updated guidance issued in April. However, the department noted that student loan forgiveness under the IBR plan remains available. 'ED can and will still process loan forgiveness for the IBR Plan, which was separately enacted by Congress. Payments on PAYE, SAVE, and ICR are counted toward IBR Plan forgiveness if the borrower enrolls in IBR.'
In June, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) announced that Education Secretary Linda McMahon had agreed that the IDR tracker would be restored to StudentAid.gov soon.
'Secretary McMahon stated that she intends to soon restore the income-driven repayment (IDR) payment count tracker to Studentaid.gov, allowing borrowers to track their progress towards receiving debt relief, after taking down the tracker earlier in the Trump administration,' Senator Warren said in a June statement.
But so far, Secretary McMahon's assurances have not materialized. In the meantime, some borrowers who have reached the threshold for student loan forgiveness under IBR have yet to receive a discharge. And with IDR payment counts not getting updated, it is unclear whether the department is actually currently counting payments toward borrowers' IDR repayment term.
Student Loan Forgiveness Tracking For PSLF Is Accessible But Spotty
Meanwhile, the department does not appear to have removed the student loan forgiveness tracker for the PSLF program, which is good news for borrowers. PSLF, or Public Service Loan Forgiveness, allows borrowers to discharge their federal student debt in as little as 10 years. Borrowers must typically repay their loans under an IDR plan while working in qualifying nonprofit or government employment on a full-time basis to receive PSLF credit toward loan forgiveness. PSLF tracking has been accessible via StudentAid.gov since the system was migrated from MOHELA last summer.
However, borrowers are reporting that PSLF tracking information has not updated in StudentAid.gov for several months.
'My PSLF counts updated on FSA 4/4,' said one Reddit user. 'I've submitted a ECF end of April and end of May. I'm super close - depending on how they will count my admin forbearance I'll be at 120. Nothing is triggering the update despite forms being processed.'
'I recently submitted an ECF (which actually processed quite quickly, so that was nice),' said another Reddit user in May. 'I do this a few times a year to keep everything square, and was hoping to add my payment counts since January 2025. I made my payments every month since (Feb, Mar, Apr, May). The problem is FSA only added one month of qualifying payments (February) and nothing appeared for March, April, or May.'
'Welcome to the club,' replied another user.
'Same boat here,' said another 'My payment count doesn't show anything past September 2024, but according to my PSLF dashboard, my account was updated in November. I just submitted my employment verification, hoping it would trigger an update, but no luck - payment count remains at 90 when it should be around 104.'
The Department of Education has not issued any public comment or guidance to explain the delays in updating student loan forgiveness payment counts for PSLF. Federal Student Aid customer service agents are, according to some Reddit users, telling borrowers that it can take up to 90 days to update. Other FSA agents are blaming student loan servicers for not reporting payment information to the department's system, but servicers then appear to be blaming the department.
Student Loan Forgiveness And Repayment System In Turmoil
The issues with student loan forgiveness tracking for IDR and PSLF come as the broader repayment system continues to experience profound turmoil.
Around eight million borrowers who were in the SAVE plan remain stuck in an involuntary forbearance due to court challenges, preventing them from making progress toward loan forgiveness. Many of these borrowers have applied to switch to a different IDR plan. But the Department of Education and its loan servicers are now contending with a 1.5 million IDR application backlog, which loan servicers appear to be addressing steadily, but slowly. MOHELA has suggested that some borrowers should consider reapplying for their IDR plan using the online application system and IRS data retrieval tool.
The department also faces a large and growing backlog for PSLF Buyback, a related program that allows borrowers to make a lump sum payment covering periods of non-qualifying forbearance so that the months can count toward student loan forgiveness. While the department has made some progress in processing a few thousand PSLF Buyback requests, the backlog of applications increased from around 49,000 in May to more than 58,000 in June. Many borrowers have been waiting months for a determination.
Last week, President Trump signed the 'Big, Beautiful Bill' passed by Republican lawmakers in Congress. The legislation will make massive changes to federal student loan forgiveness and repayment plans. While PSLF is preserved under the bill, President Trump and GOP lawmakers agreed to repeal several IDR options (including the SAVE plan), which will force many borrowers to change their repayment plan next year. Advocates have warned that this will lead to substantial increases in monthly payments for many Americans. And if the system isn't operating smoothly by then, there could be even more significant disruptions.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
TechCrunch
11 minutes ago
- TechCrunch
California lawmaker behind SB 1047 reignites push for mandated AI safety reports
California State Senator Scott Wiener on Wednesday introduced new amendments to his latest bill, SB 53, that would require the world's largest AI companies to publish safety and security protocols and issue reports when safety incidents occur. If signed into law, California would be the first state to impose meaningful transparency requirements onto leading AI developers, likely including OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and xAI. Senator Wiener's previous AI bill, SB 1047, included similar requirements for AI model developers to publish safety reports. However, Silicon Valley fought ferociously against that bill, and it was ultimately vetoed by Governor Gavin Newsom. California's Governor then called for a group of AI leaders — including the leading Stanford researcher and co-founder of World Labs, Fei Fei Li — to form a policy group and set goals for the state's AI safety efforts. California's AI policy group recently published their final recommendations, citing a need for 'requirements on industry to publish information about their systems' in order to establish a 'robust and transparent evidence environment.' Senator Wiener's office said in a press release that SB 53's amendments were heavily influenced by this report. 'The bill continues to be a work in progress, and I look forward to working with all stakeholders in the coming weeks to refine this proposal into the most scientific and fair law it can be,' Senator Wiener said in the release. SB 53 aims to strike a balance that Governor Newsom claimed SB 1047 failed to achieve — ideally, creating meaningful transparency requirements for the largest AI developers without thwarting the rapid growth of California's AI industry. 'These are concerns that my organization and others have been talking about for a while,' said Nathan Calvin, VP of State Affairs for the nonprofit AI safety group, Encode, in an interview with TechCrunch. 'Having companies explain to the public and government what measures they're taking to address these risks feels like a bare minimum, reasonable step to take.' Techcrunch event Save up to $475 on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Save $450 on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Boston, MA | REGISTER NOW The bill also creates whistleblower protections for employees of AI labs who believe their company's technology poses a 'critical risk' to society — defined in the bill as contributing to the death or injury of more than 100 people, or more than $1 billion in damage. Additionally, the bill aims to create CalCompute, a public cloud computing cluster to support startups and researchers developing large-scale AI. With the new amendments, SB 53 is now headed to California State Assembly Committee on Privacy and Consumer Protection for approval. Should it pass there, the bill will also need to pass through several other legislative bodies before reaching Governor Newsom's desk. On the other side of the U.S., New York Governor Kathy Hochul is now considering a similar AI safety bill, the RAISE Act, which would also require large AI developers to publish safety and security reports. The fate of state AI laws like the RAISE Act and SB 53 were briefly in jeopardy as federal lawmakers considered a 10-year AI moratorium on state AI regulation — an attempt to limit a 'patchwork' of AI laws that companies would have to navigate. However, that proposal failed in a 99-1 Senate vote earlier in July. 'Ensuring AI is developed safely should not be controversial — it should be foundational,' said Geoff Ralston, the former president of Y Combinator, in a statement to TechCrunch. 'Congress should be leading, demanding transparency and accountability from the companies building frontier models. But with no serious federal action in sight, states must step up. California's SB 53 is a thoughtful, well-structured example of state leadership.' Up to this point, lawmakers have failed to get AI companies on board with state-mandated transparency requirements. Anthropic has broadly endorsed the need for increased transparency into AI companies, and even expressed modest optimism about the recommendations from California's AI policy group. But companies such as OpenAI, Google, and Meta have been more resistant to these efforts. Leading AI model developers typically publish safety reports for their AI models, but they've been less consistent in recent months. Google, for example, decided not to publish a safety report for its most advanced AI model ever released, Gemini 2.5 Pro, until months after it was made available. OpenAI also decided not to publish a safety report for its GPT-4.1 model. Later, a third-party study came out that suggested it may be less aligned than previous AI models. SB 53 represents a toned-down version of previous AI safety bills, but it still could force AI companies to publish more information than they do today. For now, they'll be watching closely as Senator Wiener once again tests those boundaries.
Yahoo
11 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Nvidia Hits $4 Trillion--And It's Still Just Getting Started
Nvidia (NVDA, Financials) just crossed a milestone no company ever has before; on Wednesday, it became the first public firm in history to hit a $4 trillion market cap. Shares popped 2.5% to an all-time high of $164; the message from Wall Street is clearAI is here, and Nvidia is leading the charge. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 4 Warning Signs with NVDA. This time last year, Nvidia had just hit $1 trillion; now, in just over 12 months, it's quadrupled that figurefaster than either Apple (AAPL, Financials) or Microsoft (MSFT, Financials) ever managed. Once known for gaming GPUs; then for powering crypto mining rigs; Nvidia has reinvented itself againnow as the engine room of global AI infrastructure. The company now carries the biggest weight on the S&P 5007.3%; that's more than Apple; more than Microsoft. The stock is up 22% year-to-date; and after getting knocked down in Aprilthanks to Trump-era tariffs and Chinese AI jittersit's bounced back fast, gaining 74% from those lows. That rebound wasn't just hype; Q1 revenue jumped 69% to $44.1 billion, with earnings of 81 cents per share. And for Q2, Nvidia expects $45 billion in revenue, give or take 2%; it'll report those numbers on August 27. Despite the monster rally, the stock trades at a forward P/E of 32below its three-year average of 37; that suggests investors don't think it's overheated just yet. With that kind of trajectoryand dominancesome would argue this is Nvidia's world now; the rest of us are just living (and computing) in it. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
11 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Car import quotas, export credits on table for EU-US trade talks, sources say
By Christoph Steitz, Julia Payne and David Lawder FRANKFURT/BRUSSELS/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Brussels is discussing with U.S. counterparts a range of measures aimed at protecting the European Union's auto industry from steep U.S. import duties, including tariff cuts, import quotas and credits against the value of EU automakers' U.S. exports, industry sources and trade officials say. The talks are part of efforts by the European Commission, the bloc's executive branch, to reach a trade agreement outline with the United States in the coming days, ahead of the August 1 deadline set by U.S. President Donald Trump for broad tariff increases. Trump said on Tuesday he would "probably" tell the EU within two days what rate it could expect for its exports to the U.S., adding that the 27-nation bloc had become much more cooperative. EU negotiators have sought relief from tariffs in key sectors such as autos and aerospace. One EU diplomat previously said cars were a "red line" for the bloc, making a U.S. concession on cars a caveat of any deal. Since April, EU carmakers have incurred a 25% U.S. import tariff on top of the 2.5% already in place. The levy is separate from Trump's prior threatened 20% "reciprocal" tariff announced in April but dialed back to 10%. Discussions are ongoing and it is unclear if the U.S. administration will agree to all terms from its biggest bilateral trading partner, the sources said. The White House, the U.S. Trade Representative's Office and the Commerce Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the U.S.-EU negotiations. The European Commission also had no immediate comment for this story. EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic said on Wednesday the Commission has made good progress on a framework trade agreement with the United States and a deal may be possible in the coming days. The sources - two European industry sources, three European officials and three U.S. industry sources familiar with the talks - declined to be identified because the talks are confidential. EXPORT CREDITS A U.S. source and one European official said things are moving "fast" in the negotiations. On the table is a proposal that would provide some relief from import tariffs for carmakers that produce vehicles in the United States and export them to other countries, three of the sources said. Under that plan, carmakers that export vehicles from the U.S. would get credits for that export value, which could then be applied against the value of any imports from the EU into the U.S., the U.S. source said. That would allow companies to import that value of vehicle duty-free or at a reduced rate, while anything above it would be subject to the maximum tariff. Such a mechanism would benefit carmakers BMW and Mercedes-Benz, which both have major production hubs in the United States for sport-utility vehicles, with a significant share of their output exported. Two sources said the U.S. had offered some relief if a company agrees to make additional investment, a mechanism that would help Volkswagen, which barely exports out of U.S. plants but is weighing a local factory for its Audi brand. The terms are a delicate balancing act for Brussels as it tries to find concessions that are acceptable to carmakers such as BMW, Porsche, Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz, as well as to the Trump administration, which wants to boost U.S. manufacturing and create jobs. TARIFF RATES, QUOTAS DISCUSSED Europe shipped nearly 758,000 cars worth 38.9 billion euros ($45.57 billion) to the U.S. in 2024, more than four times as many as in the other direction, according to data from European auto association ACEA. Two of the sources said the framework may be similar to the one agreed with Britain in May. In that deal, the U.S. cut tariffs on British-made cars to 10% and British carmakers received a import quota of 100,000 cars a year at the lower tariff rate, almost the total Britain exported last year. While the EU had proposed a similar tariff-rate quota with a certain number of vehicles imported, two U.S. industry sources said the Trump administration was leaning against this. Three sources said both sides have discussed cutting their respective auto import tariffs from current levels - 27.5% for imports into the U.S., and 10% for imports into the EU. Non-tariff elements such as standardising regulation, for example in the area of auto safety tests, are also being offered by the EU, one of the people said. ($1 = 0.8536 euros) Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
