Consumer complaint received 2017-08-21
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: DC
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:
Hello, I have been re-paying my student loans under the Income Based Repayment plan for the last several years, and have been periodically updating my Public Service Loan Forgiveness information to keep that moderately up to date and certified. This year, I admittedly started my re-certification for my income payment plan late, in later XX/XX/XXXX. I have been trying to certify a new repayment plan since then, for the last 4 months. I also had to spend 3 months trying to update my PSLF certification. The PSLF certification problem was due to my Agency ( the US EPA ) changing their payroll servicing from DFAS, which changed our Employer Identification Number. I provided the information to FedLoan Servicing so they could contact my agency about the change, and they said they were unable to do so. I provided another source of information, and they tried to say that I needed to have a high level HR representative or my boss call them, which I said was unacceptable and they finally got around to certifying it after I made it clear that I was recording our interactions - after 3 months of effort. They also repeatedly sent me notifications saying that my request was denied, which were confirmed to be repeatedly incorrect when I actually called their service people. The Income Based Repayment plan problems went a different way. First, about a month after applying I was rejected for the standard Income Based Repayment plan that I 've used for several years. This was apparently due to an income increase, that is fair and I understand that, although the amount of time to determine that seems exceptionally long. I was told to apply for the Pay As You Earn plan instead, that I should be eligible for it. After waiting for a month again, I was rejected again. I was finally told to apply for the Revised Pay As You Earn plan, and over the last two months I have been waiting for that to process. Meanwhile, I have made 3 payments almost {$300.00} higher than would have been the case under either my old plan or under any other new plan if I could have my paperwork certified. I have now been told that they 've put my plan request in for expedited review, and told that I should make a {$5.00} forbearance payment this month instead of the standard much higher payment they 've put me under. This is also because they said that I have to make a full standard payment amount for one additional month in order to switch from one income based repayment plan to another, which seems like it should not be the case. If an individual needs to switch from one income based repayment plan to another, expecting them to suddenly pay the full standard payment ( the payment based on a 10 year repayment plan ) seems extremely incorrect.
In any case, this also means my current month wo n't count towards my PSLF forgiveness dates. This is despite the fact that my overpaying over the last several months would 've more than paid for an additional month 's payment. I am also told that they are uncertain as to whether they 'll have the review done in time for my payment in XX/XX/XXXX to accurately reflect what would be calculated under the Revised PAYE plan. I am beginning to wonder if this servicer is purposefully doing poorly at their job because they receive some percentage of the money that they receive for billing, because this level of delay is just hard to understand otherwise. Additionally, through this entire process, the letters I receive from FedLoan regarding my account are confusing as well as contradictory to both each other and to what I am told on the phone by their representatives. I am including a rough set of notes regarding my contacts with Fedloan servicing regarding these issues. I truly hope you can assist me in this. I 've also contacted the Department of Education Ombudsman regarding this matter, and have told them of my contacting you. Thank you for your time

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation