Consumer complaint received 2018-10-08
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: AE
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Received bad information about your loan

Complaint:
I recently applied for forgiveness of my federal student loans that are currently consolidated with my ex-spouse. She is the primary signer and I am a cosigner on the account. On or around XXXX, XXXX XXXX, my wife at the time, consolidated my XXXX direct student loans with her own. We divorced in XXXX, but the loans are still in the consolidated status ( spousal consolidation loan ). Even though I am not the primary signer on the account XXXX stated that my portion of the loans in consolidation are eligible for Public Service Forgiveness. I  joined the XXXX in XXXX and became an XXXX XXXX XXXX in XX/XX/XXXX. I'm still on XXXX XXXX and have had no break in service. 
For reference only, I have loans from XXXX XXXX that are under my name that have been placed into the public service forgiveness program that I questioned the validity of the calculation of eligible payments from XXXX. Due to several conflicting statements from XXXX 's customer service department, I filed a complaint through this organization in order to get a definitive answer on why my payments on my sole owned loans were only calculated with a start date in XXXX instead of XXXX when I started paying on the loans. Again, I'm only making this statement as a frame of reference because I mentioned in the complaint that I was also attempting to have my loans that are in a consolidation status with my ex-spouse separated out and calculated for forgiveness eligibility. I understand that the loans can't be separated out at this time. 
However, when XXXX responded to my complaint, the company not only addressed my issue with my loans from XXXX XXXX, but also gave instructions on how to have my loans from the spousal consolidation loan with my ex-wife calculated for forgiveness in the PSFL program. 
My complaint is this : I followed the instructions given as feedback to my prior complaint that was unrelated to my XXXX XXXX loans. XXXX stated that I could apply for forgiveness targeting the loans under my social security number in the spousal consolidation loan. XXXX stated that they would forgive the balances under my social security number due to my service in the XXXX, but not those that are under my ex-spouses ' social security number. XXXX instructed that I could apply for forgiveness and list my ex-spouses ' information on the form. To avoid confusion, I provided my information as well because my ex-spouse has no service that would qualify her for forgiveness of her direct loans. XXXX responded with a letter stating that they were unable to approve my request because I had missing information in the application on section 3, which is the XXXX for the XXXX XXXX. My ex-spouse would not have an XXXX to provide because she never worked for the federal government in any capacity. If you review my application, I clearly included this information from my organization because I meet the eligibility requirements to apply for forgiveness under the public service forgiveness program. After 2 more phone calls to XXXX, XXXX 's customer service department seemed confused and would not offer any assistance to work out this issue. I've attached the feedback, my application for forgiveness and the letter related to this action.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation