Consumer complaint received 2022-08-26
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: CO
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:
Hello, I am a part time graduate student who works in the public health sector ( qualifying PSLF employee ). I was removed from my {$0.00} IDR without my knowledge and placed into " In School Deferment ''. Because of this I found out during the COVID payment pause that I was in the deferment, which was almost 2 years after my In-school deferment started. FedLoan 's response to me requesting the deferment be removed had several inaccurate, and completely wrong information in it and is refusing to allow me to correct the In-school deferment plan that they decided on : " We did receive the School Deferment Waiver form and it was processed and applied to your account. However, when the processor goes to remove the school deferment, they must research the account to ensure the full installment payments were made during those months. If there is a month or months where the full installment bill was not satisfied for that month, they are unable to remove the school deferment during that particular month. 

The Deferment was therefore adjusted from its original start date of XX/XX/XXXX to now start on XX/XX/XXXX. This is because while you were approved for a {$0.00} installment effective XX/XX/XXXX, this lasted through XX/XX/XXXX. Close to the XXXX date, recertification documents are due. If it was not re-certified in time, the installment would increase to {$3800.00} effective XX/XX/XXXX. 

Unfortunately, recertification documents were not received, and the amount expired. Therefore in order to be able to remove the school deferment from XX/XX/XXXX onward, there would have needed to be the full installment payment, {$3800.00} on file during those continuing months. Since there was not, removing the deferment during those months would mean the loans would go delinquent, and since this was years ago, the account would go straight to default, where your taxes are taken and wages would be garnished. " First : The original start date " XX/XX/XXXX '' is completely in accurate. My deferment appears to have been started in XX/XX/XXXX. This is around the time that I would have notified of the requirement to resubmit my certification, but I was never notified because I was not longer on a XXXX plan. Had I received my notification to resubmit the XXXX plan I would have, but I was not informed because FedLoan TOOK ME OFF THE PLAN WITHOUT MY KNOWLEDGE! 

Second : They state " there would have needed to be the full installment payment, {$3800.00} on file during those continuing months. Since there was not, removing the deferment during those months would mean the loans would go delinquent, and since this was years ago, the account would go straight to default, where your taxes are taken and wages would be garnished ''. This is not true based on the XX/XX/XXXX changes and the PSLF waiver. According to those documents : XXXX. I have always been eligible for IDR so I would not have needed to pay {$3800.00} on my loans those months XXXX. Even if they placed me in default, based on the XX/XX/XXXX changes, defaulted loans are returned to in repayment status. - thus my loans would be moved immediately back to repayment XXXX. Taxes/wage garnishments are also on pause XXXX. According to PSLF Waiver : " Periods of repayment where payments were late or for less than the amount due also count '' - thus my " In School Deferment '' waiver that I never approved of should be removed as requested and the removal would allow my loan payments of {$0.00} to qualify for the PSLF ( I qualified for {$0.00} XXXX at that time ). 

Lastly : I took had an entire year where I did not take any classes, and FedLoan kept me in In-School Deferment during that time. How can someone be kept on an In School Deferment plan when they are not actively in school?? FedLoan made no effort to change me back to a repayment plan, and thus I never had bills for these months when I was inn-accurately kept on the In-School Deferment. 

This entire process of having FedLoan make decisions on my behalf, without informing me and changing my payment plan from an eligible PSLF plan to an IDENTICAL monthly payment plan ( $ 0 monthly requirements ) that does not qualify for PSLF is completely unfair to those of us in the service sector who are working very hard to maintain service sector jobs and continue education at low cost while also paying off our loans and eligible payment count.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief