Consumer complaint received 2024-09-14
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Struggling to repay your loan — Problem with forgiveness, cancellation, or discharge
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC. (SC)

Reason for this complaint : I feel Navient participated in deceptive practice by not informing me of the XXXX  status that was automatically dropped on my loan account when I re-entered school for my XXXX XXXX. Furthemore, I did not know at the time that an XXXX  status disqualified any repayment from going towards forgiveness. Furthermore, I was not informed that there was a form that I could have filled out to nullify that disqualification and have my payments count. To me, my financial assistance in pursuing my XXXX was separate from my assistance for my XXXX. I did not inquire any financial government assistance for my XXXX and was paying for that as I attended right out. So, I was working while continuing to pay on my XXXX loan while attending school part-time ( paying for that separately ). During the XXXX  period, I paid {$12000.00} towards my XXXX loan. That totaled XXXX payments that I later found out would not count towards PSLF. Below explain the headache I went through trying to get a straight answer of why my {$12000.00} plus was omitted. Below also explains how I had to find out the way an XXXX  status hurts the borrower and how it is placed on their record through a XXXX search, not Navient. 

Background : My student loan was for me to receive my XXXX XXXX from XXXX University. I attended a local satellite location but later attended it strictly online. Upon graduating, I made my first repayment to Sallie Mae on XX/XX/XXXX. I continued to make my payments when my loan was switched to Navient. Due to financially hard times, my last payment was recorded on XX/XX/XXXX. According to the limited PSLF waiver, whether my payments were partial, full or on time, I made XXXX payments towards my student loan. I was employed full-time at an approved not-for-profit organization for XXXX  years during my repayment period. Every required stipulation I needed in order to be qualified for forgiveness under the limited PSLF was completed. I checked every box in order to have the remaining balance forgiven. My application was completed and faxed on XX/XX/XXXX. XXXX sent a follow-up letter that my application was successfully received. On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a statement from aidVantage that my total loan was eligible for consolidation. On XX/XX/XXXX, prior to the deadline, I received a letter from Navient that my total loan was paid in full as a result of my recent loan consolidation. On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a letter that the U.S. Dept. of Education reassigned my new federal consolidated student loan to XXXX for servicing. On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a XXXX letter that I had eligible loans and my employment qualified for PSLF. When I finally received my letter, what I expected to be my forgiveness letter from XXXX, it was actually a letter stating that I was basically short of the needed XXXX payments in order to be forgiven the remaining balance. I was puzzled and submitted a claim to get answers. I submitted so many cases and always got the run around for a simple question of why XXXX of my payments were not being counted. I submitted so many cases because I always got some copy/paste rebuttal and my case would be close. At first, it appeared there was a question about my employment and my payment periods. Below details the information from the letter. I reiterated the information in many of my cases. This is very lengthy due to me wanting to be very thorough, clear and for them to capture my understanding of why I thought the omission of my payment periods was unfair. I contacted XXXX via both electronic cases and actual phone calls. I focused mainly online to have records of my correspondences. 

In XX/XX/XXXX, I submitted a case to XXXX. 

I was looking over my progress and noticed that XXXX qualifying repayment periods were omitted or looked over. 

I started my repayment in XX/XX/XXXX. The system totally skipped over my employment months/years XX/XX/XXXX - XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX - XX/XX/XXXX ( below shows how the system skipped this period ). It went from XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX. The qualifying periods that are missing equals XXXX. 

I was employed full-time to the same employer during all those XXXX skipped periods as I was during the periods that were counted ( XXXX ). The " Need Employment Certification '' count keeps increasing because the system is calculating the periods XX/XX/XXXX to present. Furthermore, the system also states that all those payment periods that " need employment certification '' are eligible but require approved employment in order to qualify. 

My missed XXXX employment periods were eligible and should have been counted as qualified. The skipped XXXX periods in which I submitted proof that I was making payments should have been counted as qualified as well. The payments were there and so was my employment. The XXXX already qualified plus the skipped XXXX that should also be qualified equals XXXX. It says forgiveness is at ( XXXX ) and that I have XXXX of XXXX to go. If the system had counted my XXXX payment periods ( months ), and my XXXX missed payments, I would actually be over by XXXX periods and XXXX payments respectively with nothing left to pay. 

Please recalculate this again and post the correct information. I do have a copy of every payment I sent Navient and proof of my entire qualified employment periods from XXXX. 
Thank you I copied and pasted the above later in a case to FSA in XXXX. That case # XXXX is below. 

At the time, I was just confused and totally forgot I had went back to school for my XXXX. It was a slow process that was being stretched out over years in which I didnt even complete. So in the case to XXXX, I did mention that I was not attending any higher educational institutions during the XXXX skipped periods above. I received my last degree in XXXX, which is true because I didnt complete my XXXX. I was in full repayment mode in XX/XX/XXXX. 

The below information was in another case that just repeated the above but included this detail. 

These were details in a letter I received and on XXXX site. 

What the XXXX employment periods that were actually counted said : XXXX DL Consolidation Unsubsidized XX/XX/XXXX PSLF, TEPSLF  Qualifying - Special Waiver View Details = Due to the special waiver, this payment period is eligible and qualifying. 

XXXX DL Consolidation Subsidized XX/XX/XXXX PSLF, TEPSLF Qualifying - Special Waiver View Details = Due to the special waiver, this payment period is eligible and qualifying. 

What the XXXX " Need Employment Certification '' said : XXXX DL Consolidation Unsubsidized XX/XX/XXXX PSLF, TEPSLF Employment Not Certified View Details = This payment period is eligible but requires approved employment in order to qualify. 

XXXX DL Consolidation Subsidized XX/XX/XXXX PSLF, TEPSLF Employment Not Certified View Details = This payment period is eligible but requires approved employment in order to qualify. 

This is true because I was no longer employed as of XX/XX/XXXX. 

The details " Due to the special waiver, this payment period is eligible and qualifying '' should also be applied to the XXXX periods. 

XXXX Replied : Thank you for contacting XXXX, We apologize for any inconvenience this XXXX have caused. When payment months are not listed as eligible or ineligible, this indicates that XXXX is still updating your payment counts. Your approved qualifying employment has been applied to your account, but we have not yet received permission from FSA to update the account with the remaining qualifying payment updates. As we receive approval for the updates, we apply all qualifying payments to your account. Your payment counts will not reflect the actual count until all of the updates are complete. Continue to monitor your account on the XXXX portal for any adjustments. We appreciate your continued patience. 

Since XXXX stated that the hold up is with FSA, I requested an appeal and asked for a contact person at FSA. 

I replied to XXXX : Hi, in regards to your response to my account, you stated that you have not heard from or been released by FSA to update my account with the remaining qualifying payment updates. Can I get a contact from somebody at FSA in which to appeal? This just doesn't seem logical for the system to have skipped all those eligible payment periods ( month & years ) when it is on record that proves my 20 years straight employment. It appears those missing periods were deliberately skipped because this is not logical. Please make this make sense. I would like to submit an appeal please. Thank you I didnt wait to hear back from XXXX about this and decided to contact FSA directly to get more information. 

FSA dispute case # XXXX Hello, I have contacted XXXX several times via telephone about this issue but keep getting the same run around. I decided to send an email. I sent them the same details above when looking over my progress. 

I followed up with another case XXXX where I had a separate concern. An aid worker replied that he/she would add any new information provided in that case to my existing dispute case, XXXX and closed it. 

In case XXXX I politely requested to be informed of any reason ( s ) to why the system would erase, omit, skip years of my qualified employment that I sent proof of in order to adversely deem me XXXX payments short of the required XXXX. A total of XXXX payment periods/ approved employment were skipped. I listed all the months and years in my case. Furthermore, I submitted proof of every payment made during each of those skipped XXXX periods. Why would the system do that? The system is taking away rightful years of my employment but wants to mention the months/years after I left as such : ** This payment period is eligible but requires approved employment in order to qualify. ** The system is omitting my life and years of working and that is not fair. 
Can somebody please address my concern regarding my employment being omitted? 

I didn't see where the aid worker included this information to this case. Thus, I added a message that was attached to case XXXX. 


FSA response : Dear *****, Thank you for contacting the U.S. Department of Education 's office of Federal Student Aid ( FSA ). In reviewing your complaint, it appears you are seeking additional credit through the Payment Count Adjustment towards income-driven repayment ( IDR ) and Public Service Loan Forgiveness ( PSLF ). We will track this complaint until your request is reviewed. Your case number is : XXXX. Please reference this case number when contacting FSA about this matter. FSA is currently in the process of automatically applying Payment Count Adjustment credit across certain borrower accounts. Borrowers will automatically receive payment credit on their loans for the following periods : any months in a repayment status, regardless of the payments made, loan type, or repayment plan ; XXXX or more months of consecutive forbearance and/or XXXX or more months of cumulative forbearance ; any months spent in economic hardship or military deferments in XXXX or later ; any months spent in any deferment ( with the exception of in-school deferment ) prior to XXXX ; and any time in repayment ( or deferment or forbearance, if applicable ) on earlier loans before consolidation of those loans into a consolidation loan. After the automatic adjustments are completed in XXXX, the FSA Ombudsman Office will begin the process of reviewing requests for manual adjustments. Please note that manual account reviews can not be conducted before the automatic account adjustments are completed. However, we will keep your complaint open until we can complete the manual review. That means your complaint may remain open for several months. 

The gist of case XXXX w/o repeating most of what Ive already included is below. 

Hello... I recently submitted a complaint regarding missed/skipped employment and payments. I received the same run around that the servicer gives me. Can somebody please at least give me a logical reason why the system would totally omit my employment and thus XXXX payment periods when documents were submitted to show my payments during these XXXX omitted payment periods and my entire 20 years straight employment? The system erased ( skipped, omitted, ignored ) months and years of employment that would have counted towards my forgiveness. I am a very logical person and if something doesn't make sense to me, it seems deliberate... thus faulty. Can somebody please provide a logical reason why the system or perhaps someone would omit my records? It seems like the system was made to only count some employment/ payments to show progress towards forgiveness but deliberately omitted several years of employment and payments to not grant full forgiveness. Therefore, I ask again, can a real person please provide a logical reason to at least alleviate my suspicion of a faulty system. Again, please make it make sense. Thank you kindly. 

I submitted another suspicious activity case to be informed of any reason ( s ) to why the system would erase, omit, skip years of my qualified employment that I sent proof of in order to adversely deem me XXXX payments short of the required XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX. 

In several phone calls and in the below response from XXXX, the agents kept mentioning I was in XXXX in which just continually confused me. I remained steadfast that I never requested for an XXXX  during the omitted period. I knew a deferment meant you needed your payments halted because of trouble paying, but I was still making payments during the periods in question. So why did that apply to me? Nobody explained the ramification of an XXXX  status on your record, they just kept mentioning it and I just kept denying it. 

XXXX response : Thank you for contacting XXXX, We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Your account after having XXXX reviews submitted regarding missing months is correctly showing XXXX/XXXX payments for your approved employment at XXXX from XX/XX/XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX. 

According to your underlying loan information on www.nslds.ed.gov, your loans were placed into an In-School Deferment XX/XX/XXXX and did not enter repayment until XX/XX/XXXX. You also show forbearance periods which were not XXXX consecutive or XXXX cumulative months that did not qualifying on the underlying loans within your consolidation loan. 

I had enough and decided to investigate myself the background to having XXXX on your record. 

After my investigation, I submitted another case to XXXX. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I typed : To whom it may concern, I received a response from my inquiry regarding several months/years and thus payments not being counted towards my limited PSLF. I still say ''limited '' because I did get in all of the requirements to qualify under the limited stipulations before it expired. The response mentioned an " in-school deferment '' that shows on my record. I have been very confused about this status showing up on my record until I looked deeper into this topic. Through a XXXX search, it is NOW to my knowledge that the XXXX  is AUTOMATICALLY placed on a student 's account when they enter school. I knew without a doubt that I did not ask for this XXXX. You folks had me thinking I was crazy. Furthermore, I had to run across a reddit post that was posted 2 years ago that informed me of a so-called XXXX  waiver form. The post included a link to the form at ( XXXX ) which of course could not be attained. Even the person who made the post acknowledged that the form was extremely cumbersome to track down. Why is this? My guess is that these loan companies do not want students to fill and send in this form, because you know the continued payments would not count towards loan forgiveness. And that is why the XXXX is automatically placed on student 's account so we wouldn't know. I apologize if my speculation is incorrect, but I am mad and I smell a rat. To my knowledge, XXXX is a temporary postponement of repayment of federal student loans. If I was aware of this XXXX, that means I would have requested it and if I had requested it, that means I knew I wouldn't have been able to make the payments. And if I wouldn't have been able to make payments, why did I continue to pay and paid {$12000.00} during this XXXX  period. I did not ask for this and I was not notified of a waiver form that could have been filled out so that any continued payments would count towards student loan forgiveness. This is pure deception. It is financial XXXX. My student loan forgiveness count has suffered due to something I did not ask for or wasn't told that there was a waiver form to submit in order to not be in XXXX  when I pursued my master. When I went back to school I did not look to or depend on federal student loans to finance my master. I was determined not to accrue any further student loans. There is no record of me borrowing money from the federal government during that XXXX  period because I was doing this ALL on my own. I had no communication with Navient or any federal government to aid me or halt my payments. All I wanted was to enroll in school, continue to make payments on my existing loan, graduate and finish on my own. I did not ask for the federal government help in halting my payments in order for me to do what I had set my mind to do. I should have been offered the help without the automatic assumption that I needed the aid. This XXXX  was done behind my back and now I am paying for it just as if an innocent XXXX victim would suffer if a XXXX  XXXX was contracted by no fault of their own. Now I am sorry I had to go to such extreme, but that is the only way for me to explain how I feel. This unknowingly XXXX period includes XXXX payments that are not being counted and should be. This is pure deception and so not fair. Every single analyst I have spoken to/ emailed regarding my concerns of my missing payments not being counted never mentioned the XXXX  being automatic or a waiver form existed. They just kept throwing this XXXX  in my face, keeping me confused, and never took into account all the payments I made during this XXXX  period. Don't you think I would want {$12000.00} to count? I continued to pay and that is proof I DID NOT know I was in XXXX and thus my payments were being disqualified. Those XXXX payments were deceptively uncounted for and need to be. 

XXXX 's Response : Thank you for contacting XXXX, You may submit a reconsideration request through https : //studentaid.gov/manage-loans/pslf-reconsideration. Conducting a thorough review of each submission may take some time, depending on how much information there is to consider, among other factors. Once FSA completes the review of a request for reconsideration, FSA will notify you of the outcome of the review. 

Thank you, XXXX I immediately proceeded with submitting a reconsideration form. I included pretty much all the above. 

In the meantime, I received a letter on XX/XX/XXXX that XXXX was now my new servicer. 

I was thinking, great, now I will have to go through all of this explaining once again. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, FSA replied : Dear ****, Thank you for submitting a Public Service Loan Forgiveness Reconsideration request. Your case number is # XXXX. 
Please retain this number for reference. 
Because of the number of requests, reconsideration reviews may take some time. We will provide the status or results of your reconsideration request via email, and thank you for your patience. 

I waited a long time and never heard back and submitted a second reconsideration request, case # XXXX. 

I received a response that no requests were being investigated until after XXXX. So I waited and gave it past XXXX before seeking a response. Before I could look back into the case, on XX/XX/XXXX, I was sent the below from FSA. 

Dear ***, Thank you for contacting the U.S. Department of Educations office of Federal Student Aid. Your case number is XXXX. Please retain this number for reference. 

We received a request for Public Service Loan Forgiveness ( PSLF ) reconsideration. The request is under review. However, because of the number of requests, reconsideration reviews may take some time. We will provide the status or results of your PSLF reconsideration request via email. We thank you for your patience. 


We hope this information is most helpful as your case is now closed. If you have additional questions, please contact us at XXXX during regular hours of operation : XXXX, XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX ; XXXX  and XXXX, XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX. ; and XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX Eastern Standard Time. We are closed XXXX and XXXX. 
Sincerely, Federal Student Aid Please note how they said my request was under review and how it would take some time followed by my case was now closed all in the same email. How suspicious is that? I feel as if they didnt even look into my case and sent a generic email to wipe their hands clean of this deception. 

Then XXXX days later on XX/XX/XXXX, FSA sent the following regarding my initial reconsideration request : Dear ***, Thank you for submitting a Public Service Loan Forgiveness ( PSLF ) and Temporary Expanded PSLF ( TEPSLF ) Reconsideration request. Your case number is # XXXX. Retain this number for reference. 

We have completed our review of your reconsideration request. 
Based on the information provided and our research, we did not process your request because your request is not permitted under the PSLF Program. 

This reconsideration review is closed. 

If you need more help or have any questions, contact us Sincerely, Federal Student Aid These responses were so close, back to back, that it makes me feel like they are just cleaning out the queue by just dismissing my logical complaint. 

I immediately submitted another case # XXXX. 
Date Submitted XX/XX/XXXX I was sent a very quick seemingly generic response back about a very heartfelt and logical case regarding TEPSLF Reconsideration. I feel like this was just a blast rebuttal email sent out to everybody just to get cases closed. If one truly took their time to look into my case, one would truly see how I was frauded and the years of repayment I made should be reconsidered. I know for a fact I thought I was doing the right thing by making my monthly payments to repay my debt. Should I have just not made them? Do you not want to be repaid? I paid over {$12000.00} that is not being counted. My case was closed with the simple excuse of " we did not process your request because your request is not permitted under the PSLF Program. '' Can you please explain why it's not permitted? My request was very permitted. I did right everything that I was supposed to do. This is the same general run around I have been receiving from every company dealing with this loan. Can somebody please actually look into this and give me a logical reason why my {$12000.00} isn't being reconsidered? 

This has caused me great stress. I filed my complaint with the CFPB.