Consumer complaint received 2023-04-30
Company: MOHELA
State: FL
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 am filing a complaint against MOHELA and the Department of Education for granting me partial PSLF loan forgiveness when I am entitled to full forgiveness under the waiver. I have worked very hard to benefit as much as I can from the PSLF program for more than a decade. I made sure all of my employers starting with my first job in XXXX qualified for non-profit status and that I was on a qualifying payment plan. I submitted employment certifications on a regular basis, and followed every program stipulation including not consolidating my loans in order to prevent my loan payment count from resetting to zero. 

In a letter from MOHELA dated XX/XX/XXXX, I was surprised to learn that two of my older federal student loans with the highest payment counts were being forgiven during an account adjustment under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness ( PSLF ) waiver. On XX/XX/XXXX, I read a news article covering clarifications made that day by the Department of Education in the FAQ section of the IDR announcement webpage. It stated that borrowers like me with direct loans of differing payment counts are eligible under the PSLF waiver to consolidate their loans and receive the higher PSLF payment counts of the underlying loans. MOHELA and the Department of Education never announced or clarified this extremely relevant section of the waiver directly with borrowers in any form of communication. I have since discovered that this section of the waiver was circulating for some time amongst borrowers in student loan-focused social media groups, all the while MOHELA was advising borrowers like me not to consolidate. Tens of thousands of people have learned through these social media groups about consolidating their loans under the waiver and are receiving full loan forgiveness daily. Other eligible borrowers will be able to continue to have higher payment counts applied to consolidated loans throughout XXXX. However, for those of us that had forgiveness of only the higher count loans before we had the chance to consolidate, we are left with no direct recourse to have full forgiveness applied to our accounts. 

I called Federal Student Aid ( FSA ) immediately after I learned about the new potential benefit for consolidation for individuals like myself. I was advised to contact MOHELA and submit a new consolidation request. I contacted MOHELA, and the first agent I spoke with again told me inaccurate advice regarding the possibility of payment counts resetting with consolidation. I submitted a complaint with MOHELA, and their response was to have me speak to a customer advocacy specialist. Once I spoke to the specialist, she stated there was nothing she could do to fix this problem but suggested I submit a reconsideration request with FSA. Since then I have received no response, therefore, I have also submitted a complaint with FSA that is under review but with no estimated date it will be completed by. If the complaint is not resolved, I am then advised to contact the FSA ombudsman directly. Furthermore, on XX/XX/XXXX I received a letter from XXXX regarding my student loan consolidation, which incorrectly states that any consolidations done after XX/XX/XXXX would reset my PSLF loan count. There continues to be inaccurate information and poor advice given to borrowers, which unfortunately has significant financial consequences for decades. 

Some individuals with these hanging loans have been able to get their remaining loans forgiven after an extensive process of filing of complaints with various agencies and getting assistance from their congressional representatives. Others have spent countless hours unsuccessfully advocating for their cases with MOHELA and the Dept. of Education for over a year and a half with no end in sight. The Dept. of Education and MOHELA have failed to apply the benefits of the waiver equitably and consistently to all eligible borrowers. The stress and psychological burden on borrowers who have been left behind can not be understated.

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation