Consumer complaint received 2018-04-02
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Trouble with how payments are being handled
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC. (KS)

In XX/XX/XXXX I started getting my paycheck garnished by student loans, and my XX/XX/XXXX tax return was taken for student loans as well. I was confused because I submitted a forbearance and then an income-driven repayment plan through the Department of Education 's site studenloans.gov multiple times of the last few years for my loans. 

After further investigation, I discovered that one of my loan companies, XXXX XXXX, had put my loan in default back in XX/XX/XXXX and hadn't received anything from the forbearance and the IRP through DoE 's website. I contacted the DoE, asking why this was happening, throughout XX/XX/XXXX and then again in XX/XX/XXXX. The Ombudman 's office contacted me in XX/XX/XXXX saying I should contact Navient in regards to what was going on. I was also confused because my NSLDS says XXXX XXXX, and not Navient. I contact them on XX/XX/XXXX at the number on I was provided, but they wouldn't answer any questions, and wouldn't put me into contact with anyone who could answer a question about why they never got information from the DoE about my forbearance and IRP. They only gave me the number for the collection agency handling my defaulted loan. 

I then contacted the collection agency, XXXX, about my loan. This phone call also happened at XX/XX/XXXX. They would only tell me that I was need to pay off my loan in full, or enter into a rehabilitation service for 6 months. I informed them I was in an IRP, which was {$0.00} a month, for my other loans because I don't really make much, and that I was also needing to take care of this because I needed to go back to school. I had a recent health issue come up that lost me my job, and that prevents me from working in the field that I had been in for the last 9 years. They would only say I need to pay it off, and until then they would continue to garnish any paychecks and take my tax returns. They couldn't answer any questions about my loan not being in forbearance like it should have been, and referred me back to the original number I called Navient at to handle that issue. They also couldn't provide me with anything but the number of how much I owed. I wanted a record of how much they have taken from my taxes and my paychecks, and the exact distribution of that money being applied to my loan. They couldn't provide that, which makes it hard for me to believe my money has been applied accurately. 

I personally don't understand how a company dealing with Federal Student Loans is not required to communicate with the Department of Education, and how the DoE does not hold servicers like them accountable for not communicating with them. I did everything I was supposed to, continuing to submit my forbearance and my IRP to the DoE website, under the impression that my servicers would be informed of the decisions. Now I am being punished, to the point that I can't get training to get into a new job field because they did something wrong. I have too much training in my field to get an entry level job ( as places like XXXX have told me in the last week ), also, but not enough training or education in another field to get a job. So I am trying to go to school, but can't get student loans because of this default status that never should have happened. Now not only are they hurting my credit, they are hurting my livelihood and my ability to earn a living. My life is literally in their hands because of their mistake. 

I am attaching my NSLDS for my student loan that was in forbearance and is now in an income-driven repayment plan, showing the dates that these things happened and the servicer that hols that loan. I also included the NSLDA for the loan that is in default. I also have the letter from the Ombudsman 's office referring me to Navient.