Consumer complaint received 2022-07-16
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:
My spouse and I graduated with our XXXX degrees in XXXX with about $ XXXX in student loans each. Languished in economic hardship deferment and forbearance until XXXX when we were directed to a spousal consolidation loan by Pennsylvania Higher Education Corp, now Fedloan. Continued forbearance as we could not afford minimum payment until about XXXX when we started the XXXX program. You know the drill : capitalized interest year after year resulting in a debt now of {$280000.00} even after we've spent 30 years with this debt, 12 years paying over $ XXXX. 
I was just awarded " trophies '' by Fedloan since I hit XXXX payments, meaning we are waiting for XXXX  forgiveness! Great news, however since it is direct spousal consolidation loan, I recently discovered that Fedloan will try to " proportion '' the balance between us and forgive mine under XXXX but my spouse 's will be retained and assigned to her. That is how I understand the regulation, however no one has actually had that happen yet that I know of. A handful of us on XXXX have sat with our 120 payments made but it is not being reviewed to be forgiven. It seems like there are so few of us in this situation that the guidance issued from the DOE on how to proportion the debt is a hornets nest and it keeps getting kicked down the road. Absolutely zero communication from Fedloan, XXXX, or DOE about this unique situation. Additionally, this was NEVER explained to us at consolidation and we've operated since XXXX under the assumption that my public service employment was addressing the whole consolidated loan. 
My spouse has also worked in XXXX XXXX for at least 8 years of the 10 years required for XXXX. At first, Id submit a XXXX XXXX for her yearly and it would get kicked back to me with the note that there were no loans in her name. That is correct because the Consolidation loan apparently was in my name. So, we could have been making progress toward her forgiveness as well, however it was prevented by the way the loan was formed. Both of our incomes were used to figure the income based repayment, yet her loans apparently do not exist in the eyes of XXXX until mine are forgiven, if and when that happens. 
If this eventually goes through, my loans will be forgiven under XXXX and we have no idea what happens next. Will she get a XXXX account with her balance? Will we be able to submit about 8 years of XXXX Certifications and get credit for those payments for her? She started her own private practice last year because we were led to believe that all our loans would be forgiven and she had the flexibility to leave public service. Will she have to leave her practice and go back to a community non profit or government job to get the remaining two years of certified employment to get forgiveness? When the waiver expires in XXXX, XXXX her proportioned loan will likely not be on the books yet. Will she be able to get credit for past payments under the waiver when we were both working in public service jobs? 
The bottom line is this : Weve carried these loans for about 30 years, through hardship deferments and through over a decade of public service. The rules are still unclear and we are stuck in an administrative hold with no communication from the DOE or XXXX. Had we known this, my spouse could have stayed in her nonprofit job thru the pandemic pause and she would have exceeded the 120 payments for XXXX. Had we known this, we would have NEVER pursued the Direct Consolidation Loan ( PSLF did not exist at the time we steered into consolidation ). If Congress passes the consolidation act, we will be able to separate our loans and I guess that is good. However, weve operated under the assumption for years that my public service work was being applied to the consolidated loan. Fedloan, DOE or XXXX never provided any guidance to us. As part of the consolidation legislation, these past periods should be applied to loans when they are separated, including waiver benefits. Additionally, there needs to be an off ramp for people like us. We've been trapped in this system for almost 30 years and our balance has only increased. XXXX in XXXX did not address our type of loan and there is no way out for us. 
I know this is minutiae, but it is very important to those of us stuck in this system. However, we have nowhere else to go and this system has already stolen years of our lives, we have little for retirement, little for savings, and our XXXX are now grown and have their own student loan debt b/c we could not help them.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief