Consumer complaint received 2022-03-09
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: MI
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Private student loan
Issue: Struggling to repay your loan
Sub-issue: Can't get other flexible options for repaying your loan

Complaint:
I have written the following complaint to the department of Education. My wife XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX XXXX both qualify for the PSLF program. The department of education says we need to re-consolidate into Fedloan Servicing. However, Fedloan Servicing denied our application because it is a spousal consolidation loan through XXXX right now. Both XXXX XXXX XXXX and Fedloans Servicing have given us a XXXX XXXX. XXXX currently is the servicer of our loans. Our loans are XXXX loans that we were advised to consolidate in a spousal consolidation. We have made over XXXX payments ( only XXXX are required for PSLF ) both while both working at a qualified school ( employer ) on the Public Student Loan Forgiveness approved list. If these loans were not consolidated in a Spousal consolidation they said they would easily do the consolidation. We have met the requirements, and our loans are not private students loans but are held XXXX by companies that are not implementing the XXXX program to qualified borrowers. It is discriminatory that this is happening just because we are married and consolidated. 

LETTER sent in our complaint : Michigan Department of Education, Federal Loan Servicer : We are sending our Public Service Loan Forgiveness forms in jointly. The reason for this joint submission is that we are both Public School Teachers at qualifying districts. Our XXXX loans are consolidated jointly currently with XXXX and when we tried to reconsolidate, as the federal site advises, with Fedloan Servicing our consolidation was canceled. After many hours on hold we were advised by Fedloan Servicing to send our PSLF forms in together with a letter of explanation to avoid having it rejected. 

We have made the required XXXX payments to qualify for the forgiveness and more than XXXX additional payments in the past years. We are very thankful this program exists and are faithful public servants that are trying to ensure we follow this process to the letter as best we can. There is not a process clearly stated on the website for a previous spousal consolidation loan to go through the XXXX program even though we both clearly qualify on all criteria. 

I was able to complete the form for myself using the PSLF tool ( XXXX XXXX ). However, XXXX XXXX had to complete the form by hand because her account does not even show a loan balance due to the joint consolidation on our loans. This spousal consolidation was the route that the loan servicer advised us to do that was servicing many federal student loans. XXXX told me the loans can not be unconsolidated and XXXX XXXX told me they can not consolidate a joint spouse consolidation loan. 

I included the payment history I have records of from XXXX. 

I hope that by sending these in together it will expedite the process of XXXX. Thank you for all you do. 

Sincerely, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX : _________________________________________ Date : ____________________ XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX : _________________________________________ Date : _____________________ XXXX information showing that we qualify for XXXX : XXXX : XXXX This is the copied and pasted content from there : I have a joint Direct Consolidation Loan that I obtained with my spouse. Can we receive XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ( XXXX )? 
REPAYING LOANS Yes, but to receive forgiveness of the entire remaining balance of the loanafter making XXXX qualifying paymentsboth you and your spouse must have been employed full-time by a qualifying employer at the time each payment was made. If only XXXX of you met the employment requirement, only the portion of the remaining balance attributable to the original loans of that individual would be forgiven. 

For example, if you were employed full-time by a qualifying employer when each of the required XXXX payments was made, but your spouse never worked for a qualifying employer or worked for a qualifying employer only when some of the payments were made, the amount forgiven after the XXXX qualifying payment would be the remaining balance of the loan attributable to the loans you originally received that were paid off by the joint consolidation loan. Both you and your spouse would remain responsible for repaying the remaining balance of the loan that is attributable to the loans your spouse originally received. 

You cant receive forgiveness of a joint Direct Consolidation Loan by combining payments made when only you met the employment requirement with payments made while only your spouse met the employment requirement. For example, if only you were working for a qualifying employer when XXXX payments were made and only your spouse was working for a qualifying employer when XXXX payments were made, the payments can not be combined to count as XXXX qualifying payments that would make the loan eligible for XXXX.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation