Consumer complaint received 2018-01-13
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: AK
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Struggling to repay your loan
Sub-issue: Problem lowering your monthly payments

Complaint:
I have had ongoing issues both with getting my XXXX loan forgiveness amount of {$5000.00} taken off my account after being approved and with recalculating my payment amount under the REPAYE option after a significant change in income. 

In regards to the XXXX loan forgiveness program. I have 5 years of documented XXXX in XXXX XXXX XXXX and have submitted the necessary paperwork which has since been approved for loan forgiveness. However, it has been over 6 months since the paperwork was deemed complete and according to their representatives, approved. Yet, a " computer glitch '' supposedly denied the amount be taken off my account after it was approved. They then tried to put me on administrative forbearance again as they resubmitted the request, which has in turn lessened my qualifying payments toward public service loan forgiveness. 

In terms of my monthly payment calculation, I have provided alternative income certification twice this past year because of two changes in income not represented on my tax AGI. The first one was processed accurately and the second one was initially processed accurately and then recalculated even though I did not ask for a recalculation and is over triple what they initially sent me as the new payment. The new recalculation does not match up with what the student loan repayment calculation or my pay stubs would determine as my estimated payment. I asked them to resubmit it for recalculation after a representative told me that the new calculation was incorrect. It came back with the same exorbitant amount they had previously recalculated. 

XXXX Loan Forgiveness Timeline XX/XX/XXXX I submitted my first application and it was subsequently denied because I the form submitted by one XXXX district was missing the title of that XXXX that signed it, the XXXX district was deemed ineligible because the XXXX had used the XXXX name of " XXXX XXXX XXXX '' instead of " XXXX XXXX '' as it appeared on the Title I list, and was submitted prior to the close of the 5th XXXX year I had worked. 

XX/XX/XXXX I resubmitted the application for XXXX loan forgiveness with the corrections made to the XXXX name, the date showing the completion of the 5th XXXX year, and the XXXX 's title listed next to her name. 

XX/XX/XXXX I received notice that my application for XXXX  loan forgiveness as deemed complete and eligible and that the request would be passed on to the Department of Education. 

XXXX XXXX XX/XX/XXXX XXXX placed my account on administrative forbearance without known cause. This meant that I was not making payments that would count toward public loan forgiveness during this time. 

XX/XX/XXXX XXXX placed my account on administrative forbearance again without known cause. This meant that I was not making payments that would count toward public loan forgiveness during this time. It was later described to me that this forbearance was placed on the account because of the processing of my XXXX loan forgiveness paperwork. However, this information was verbal and not given in the letter regarding the placement of the forbearance. 

XX/XX/XXXX XXXX placed my account on administrative forbearance again without known cause. This meant that I was not making payments that would count toward public loan forgiveness during this time. It was later described to me that this forbearance was placed on the account because they had to resubmit my XXXX loan forgiveness paperwork for approval ( even though it had been previously approved according to their records ). This time, I pushed to speak to a supervisor and requested that the forbearance be removed from my account so that I could continue making qualifying payments toward public service forgiveness. 

Income Based Repayment Calculations XX/XX/XXXX Annual recertification due. Upon consolidation, my payment had been calculated based on our AGI from our tax transcripts. When asked to recertify, we provided alternative income verification as our income had significantly changed from the amount on our most current taxes due to a change in my spouses income. 

XX/XX/XXXX Payment was recalculated to be {$150.00} based on the alternative income verification provided. It is important to note that I have only made one payment of this amount because of the administrative forbearance placed on my account starting XX/XX/XXXX. I made a payment for XX/XX/XXXX while my application for a recalculation was being made because of a change in job and drop to nearly half of the previous income demonstrated back in XX/XX/XXXX. 

XX/XX/XXXX I submitted the application and necessary pay stubs to have my payment recalculated since it had come off forbearance and we had a significant change in income not demonstrated in our tax transcript. 

XX/XX/XXXX I received notification that my monthly payment under the RePAYE plan had been recalculated to be {$55.00} to begin XX/XX/XXXX. 

XX/XX/XXXX I received notification via email that my application for an IDR plan had been approved ( I  already had it approved a new payment recalculated XX/XX/XXXX and had not reapplied ). In the email it said my new payment amount would be {$290.00}. However, there was nothing to substantiate this email in my paperless inbox upon sign in. So I called and they agreed to recalculate the payment amount after a representative checked in with the department that processes these applications and they told me that it was a mistake and that the formula did not take into account my family size or other factors which is why it was incorrect. 

XX/XX/XXXX I receive a link in email to a notice in my secure inbox that states that my monthly payment had been recalculated to be {$290.00}. This occurred after the representative I spoke to on XX/XX/XXXX submitted a request to recalculate. I am unsure why the recalculation is the same incorrect amount from the XX/XX/XXXX email. According to the notice, my new payments of {$290.00} are to start on XX/XX/XXXX. 

At this point, my main concern is that my approved teacher loan forgiveness amount of {$5000.00} is deducted form my balance and that my monthly payment amount is recalculated to match the initial notice I received after submitting alternative certification which was {$55.00}. I am also concerned that my public service loan forgiveness qualifying payments are properly demonstrated to include XX/XX/XXXX ( the first payment after the end of forbearance ) and XX/XX/XXXX ( which is being deducted in the amount of {$55.00} as a direct debit but not showing as due on my account because of the cancellation of the new forbearance that they tried to place on my account to resolve the teacher loan forgiveness dilemma ). 

I am including the documents of correspondence at this time because of identifying information related to my account. However, I am happy to provide the paper trail to verify the above timeline of information upon request.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief