Consumer complaint received 2023-06-14
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Received bad information about your loan
Company: MOHELA (IL)

My federal student loans were recently transferred from XXXX to MOHELA. They are PSLF-eligible loans. I have 119 eligible payments made and 88 are listed as " qualifying. '' As of XX/XX/XXXX ( 2 phone calls ), MOHELA states that I am missing employment certification for XXXX. I'm not ; they have my previously-approved employers in their system. All of my information was certified with prior service providers before ending up at MOHELA. Under the special waiver, my XXXX payments now count toward PSLF, but when they became eligible in the system, the employer recertification changed to " employment not certified. '' MOHELA is now saying they can't find my service providers before XXXX, and the old servicers are the ones who certified my employment. 

In addition, MOHELA has, in error, documented an economic hardship deferment from XXXX as an in-school deferment. The economic hardship would have counted toward my PSLF, but the in-school doesn't. I was not even in school from XXXX XXXX. All my economic hardship documents were uploaded to prior servicers. I don't know who they used to be, and I can not help that MOHELA " lost '' my information. I deserve my PSLF forgiveness, as I've done everything exactly right for the last 15 years with these loans. I feel this is an intentional error or an instance of incompetence, and I will not be punished for a paperwork error by the federal government. 

Moreover, due to the " loss '' of my employer certifications from XXXX, I am losing the PSLF forgiveness I'd otherwise be eligible for after one more payment. The employer in question during XXXX was previously approved and certified, as it was a school providing outplacement special ed and social work services to children from public districts under FAPE laws. However, using the new employer certification form, that employer is no longer eligible, as somewhere along the way in the last 15 years, " school social worker operating under a state board of education professional educator license, providing services required under FAPE to public school children deemed inappropriate for public school placement '' lost eligibility because the employer is a private school. It was approved and certified and then the information was " lost. '' This employer was WAS certified, but when it transferred to MOHELA, that certification is gone and " nobody can locate it. Now I am not able to recertify them. I absolutely do not accept that this was accidental, as that lost cost me my federal loan discharge, which would have been available for application after the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX.

This internal documentation error is costing me *39 or more payments, * and preventing me from being eligible for discharge after XX/XX/XXXX. I have 119 eligible payments, which dropped to 88 qualifying when all my employment certifications dropped off when they were sent to MOHELA. This adds 39 months. I'm supposed to be finished in one month. I do not accept that nobody is " able '' to assist me.I 've been working as a social worker since XXXX, in education and nonprofit settings. This program was designed for people like me, and it's not helping people like me. 

In addition to CFPB, I plan to contact an attorney and the XXXX XXXX XXXX ( regarding both MOHELA and FSA if possible ), as I do not expect MOHELA or FSA to assist me any further.

I am also concerned about retaliation moving forward to certify additional employment, and eventually to apply for the PSLF forgiveness itself. This is unacceptable practice and while it may not matter to FSA or MOHELA, I've been doing exactly as I should've been from day 1 of these loans. I refuse to accept responsibility for someone else 's errors and loss of internal documents, or their employees ' inability to access materials.