Consumer complaint received 2020-01-13
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: WI
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:
1. In XX/XX/XXXX, I consolidated my subsidized and unsubsidized federal student loans and received approval from the XXXX XXXX XXXX Federal Direct Loan Program to repay my loans under the Income-Based Repayment ( IBR ) Plan. 

2. In XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX, a US Department of Education   servicer, was assigned to service my federal student loans, which were previously serviced by the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. 

3. In XX/XX/XXXX, the US Department of Education transferred customer service of my federal student loan account from XXXX XXXX XXXX to XXXX, another US Department of Education servicer. 

4. XXXX placed a brief Administrative Forbearance on my account in XX/XX/XXXX, but I continued making regular monthly payments. In addition, the US Department of Education sent me a letter ( dated XXXX XX/XX/XXXX ) indicating that it could not accept my public service employment certification because the certification form lacked employer name and employment begin date. 

5. I submitted a Public Service Loan Forgiveness ( PSLF ) Employment Certification form in XX/XX/XXXX. I did not receive a response. 

6. In XX/XX/XXXX, I submitted another PSLF Employment Certification Form. The US Department of Education sent a letter in response ( dated XXXX XX/XX/XXXX ), indicating that my employment at the XX/XX/XXXXXXXX XXXX qualified me for participation in the PSLF Program for the certified employment time periods ( XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX ). By XX/XX/XXXX, FedLoan Servicing was servicing my federal student loans. 

7. In a letter dated XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, FedLoan Servicing notified me of an update regarding [ my ] progress in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness ( PSLF ) Program. The letter stated : As a result of a review of your account records, an adjustment was made to the number of qualifying payments in our system. The letter indicated 41 total qualifying payments. When I called to dispute this number, I was told the count was still in progress and the number would change. In addition, FedLoan Servicing informed me in XX/XX/XXXX that I was now repaying my loans through the Revised Pay as You Earn ( REPAYE ) plan. I continued to recertify my income and family size at StudentLoans.gov. In XX/XX/XXXX, I submitted another Public Service Loan Forgiveness ( PSLF ) Employment Certification form. I received no response. 

8. In XX/XX/XXXX, I went to MyFedLoan.org to submit my Public Service Loan Forgiveness ( PSLF ) Application for Forgiveness. The website did not allow me to proceed for the following reason : You don't appear to have 120 qualifying payments. According to our records, you have satisfied 41 of 120 qualifying payments as of your last Employment Certification Form, processed on XX/XX/XXXX. In order to be eligible for forgiveness, you must have at least 120 qualifying payments, on at least one loan, at the time you submit your application. Your estimated eligibility date is XX/XX/XXXX. If you have certified all of your employment and believe your payment count is incorrect, please contact us to request a review of your payment history. Otherwise, you should continue to certify your employment annually until it is time to submit the PSLF : Application for Forgiveness. I have requested a review of my payment history. An email from MyFedLoan.org stated : We received your Public Service Loan Forgiveness question, and will get back to you as soon as possible. 

I am asking for a month-by-month count of whichof my student loans payments qualified. If for any reason a payment did not qualify in any given month, I would like Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency ( PHEAA ) to list the reason why.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief