Consumer complaint received 2024-02-22
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Struggling to repay your loan — Problem with forgiveness, cancellation, or discharge
Company: Maximus Federal Services, Inc. (AZ)

I contacted the Department of Education with the following message as well as supporting documents on XX/XX/XXXX pertaining to my student loans and the XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX settlement agreement for the discharge of my XXXX XXXX XXXX loans : " I have been communicating with the Department of Education about my XXXX loans for 2 years. I was informed, by the Department of Education, to not submit a 2nd borrower 's defense claim and all I needed to do was inform you that I wanted my XXXX  loans included in my claim then provide evidence which I did years ago. I am now learning through a case worker that this was a lie perpetrated by the Department of Education and I am now no longer eligible for relief under Sweet v. XXXX for my XXXX loans that I need to resubmit a separate BD claim. Why is this the case after having years of telling me otherwise? I have filled out your form ( under protest ), provided all the evidence that was attached to the original BD claim, and have done what you wanted. I am demanding this be included in the settlement group because you know exactly what you are doing and you have had years to tell me to fill out a separate form but you lied to me on purpose to not let these loans be included in the settlement. I am demanding this be discharged by the end of XXXX or I will pursue legal action against you. '' I was informed that the Department of Education forwarded my case to Aidvantage and that they were working on my request. I received the following response from Aidvantage on XX/XX/XXXX ( XXXX weeks later, after the proposed settlement agreement, and not actually addressing my complaint in the Feedback Case ) : " Dear XXXX XXXX : This letter is in response to the recent inquiry that was forwarded to us by the U.S.

Department of Education ( ED ) Federal Student Aid. We understand that you have concerns regarding your student loan account.

Our records reflect that your most recent application for Borrower Defense to Repayment is under review and pending final approval by ED. Once final review and processing is complete you will be notified, and any applicable balance adjustments will be made to your account. In the interim, your account has been placed into an Administrative Forbearance to allow adequate time for your application to be reviewed. 
We are unable to address any issues with your request not being included with a group discharge as authorized by ED. 
Youre welcome to call me directly at XXXX, XXXX, with any additional questions you may have about this issue. '' Today I received information from XXXX that the Department of Education sent discharge information to Aidvantage in a letter addressing the breach of the settlement agreement which directly contradicts the information provided by Aidvantage in writing. 

Aidvantage is purposefully stalling on removing the rest of my student loans in violation of a federal court order and I am asking CFPB to get involved. Aidvantage is deceiving members of this class action lawsuit by claiming that they haven't received discharge notifications from the Department of Education and trying to place blame with the Department of Education for not providing the information that they clearly have.