Consumer complaint received 2022-02-09
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: PA
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Trouble with how payments are being handled

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX, the waiver announcement was made in regards to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program. It was at that time, that I realized that my student loans would meet eligibility criteria for PSLF. I have been employed at a qualified employer full-time since XXXX. Once I read through all of the guidance on the Department of Education FSA website, I obtained copies of my payment histories from all servicers including XXXX and XXXX. I completed my very first Employment Verification Form and sent it into FedLoan Servicing. My loans were then transferred from XXXX to Fed Loan Servicing as they deemed my employment eligible. I thoroughly followed the instructions as provided and given on the Federal Student Aid Website-PSLF Help Tool as listed below.

PSLF Waiver Offers Way to Get Closer to Loan Forgiveness | Federal Student Aid On XX/XX/XXXX, I was notified that I was receiving a partial loan forgiveness where two of my three loan groups were forgiven however, the final loan group was not forgiven as the waiver payments that were from XXXX only applied to the Special Direct Consolidation Loan Group and not to the other Direct Unsub Loan Group . I confirmed this with a PSLF representative at FedLoan Servicing as well on XX/XX/XXXX. 

Background History/Information I graduated from my XXXX program in XXXX and began repayment of my student loans in XXXX. I made payments from XXXX and also made payments during my in-school deferment period as well from XXXX. From XXXX, I attended graduate school. In XXXX, I consolidated all loans into a direct loan consolidation. It is my understanding now at this point that the Direct Unsub loan was not included in that Direct Special Consolidation. After the waiver information was released in XXXX, I read through all of the guidance and verified that all of my loans were " Direct Loans ''. All three groups were direct loans and had relatively similar payment counts and therefore, the guidance was not to consolidate into a new consolidation loan. I was under the understanding that when the waiver was applied to my account, that it would have applied those XXXX payments across all loan groups. 

The language is listed below : New Rules for Qualifying Payments Under the new, temporary rules, any prior period of repayment will count as a qualifying payment, regardless of loan program, repayment plan, or whether the payment was made in full or on time. You continue to need qualifying employment. 
This change will apply to student loan borrowers with Direct Loans, those who have already consolidated into the Direct Loan Program, and those who consolidate into the Direct Loan Program by XXXX XXXX, XXXX. ( PSLF Waiver Offers Way to Get Closer to Loan Forgiveness | Federal Student Aid ) Loan Consolidation If you have Federal Family Education Loan ( FFEL ) Program loans, Federal Perkins Loans, or other types of federal student loans that are not Direct Loans ( for example, those from older loan programs, such as Federally Insured Student Loans [ FISL ] or National Defense Student Loans [ NDSL ] ), you must consolidate those loans into the Direct Loan program by XXXX XXXX, XXXX. Pro tip : You can log in to Aid Summary to find out how many and what types of loans you have. ( PSLF Waiver Offers Way to Get Closer to Loan Forgiveness | Federal Student Aid ) In XXXX, the Department of Education made the new announcement that a consolidation would take the highest payment count across all loans when payment histories overlap. At this time, my form request was already in process and I was not able nor was I made aware that I would need to link all of these direct loans together in order to receive the payment accounts across all of my loans. Previously, operating under old guidance, if consolidation was to happen, clients would lose all payment counts that were applied to PSLF. Therefore, you could see my hesitancy in processing a consolidation request even though it wouldnt have went through in enough time anyway before the waiver counts were processed.

At this time, I am now one of many others who have been left with a partial loan forgiveness problem with PSLF with no re-course as now there is nothing left to be able to reconsolidate to get the higher payment counts as the two other loan groups have been discharged. This has left many borrowers treated unfairly including myself and left with direct loan groups who did not have an opportunity to consolidate like others now have due to the most recent updated guidance. I have received no kind of resolution from Fed Loan Servicing who t stated that it is unfortunate. 

I am requesting you to look into my account information with FedLoan servicing and the US Department of Education to help resolve this issue for not only myself but for all others who will be impacted by this.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation