Consumer complaint received 2021-07-24
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Received bad information about your loan
Company: AES/PHEAA (AL)

I am currently participating in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness ( " PSLF '' ) Program, a federal program managed by the Department of Education and any applicable student loan servicers, which allows for student loan balances to be forgiven for individuals who work for qualifying non-profit or governmental employers and make qualifying payments for a certain amount of time ( 10 years total ), subject to other terms and conditions. As part of this program, I submit what is called an Employer Certification Form ( " ECF '' ) annually to my student loan servicer FedLoan Servicing ( " FedLoan '' ), which certifies that my non-profit employer is a qualifying employer for the program. I have received approval of my ECF for my employer in XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX and XXXX. Attached hereto please find the XX/XX/XXXX approval letter of my XXXX ECF ( entitled " XXXX PSLF EC Acknowledgment and Payments '' ), which summarizes all of my nearly 5 years of qualifying PSLF payments made thus far, as well as the internal communication between the Department of Education and FedLoan that initially led to approval of my employer as qualifying for the PSLF program ( entitled " FOIA-PRODUCTION-US-Department-of-Education-on-PSLF-1-pdf - ICC Discussion '' ).

This year, however, I submitted my ECF on XX/XX/XXXX ( attached hereto as " XXXX Public Service Loan Forgiveness Application - SIGNED '' ) and received a reply from FedLoan on XX/XX/XXXX ( attached hereto as " FedLoan Servicing Reply to XXXX ECF - XXXX '' ) stating that FedLoan needs additional time to determine if I work for a qualifying employer and meet all other criteria for the PSLF -- even though my employer and other credentials have been certified/approved for PSLF by FedLoan ( in consultation with the Department of Education ) for the past five years without issue. It is worth noting that my employer 's non-profit status, stated mission, and governance model have not changed in the slightest since my initial employment date. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I reached out to FedLoan via it's online chat service inquiring as to the status of its review of my XXXX ECF. I was provided a response containing very limited information and no estimated deadline by which I should expect to receive a response to my XXXX XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX, I again reached out to FedLoan via e-mail inquiring as to the status of its review of my XXXX ECF. On XX/XX/XXXX, I was provided a response containing very limited information and no estimated deadline by which I should expect to receive a response to my XXXX ECF. On XX/XX/XXXX, I reached out to the Department of Education 's office of Federal Student Aid via e-mail inquiring as to the status of its review of my XXXX ECF. On XX/XX/XXXX, I was provided a response containing very limited information and no estimated deadline by which I should expect to receive a response to my XXXX ECF. I followed up to this reply on the same date with three very imperative questions, none of which I ever received a response to. Screenshots of all of this correspondence are attached hereto in chronological order as " Correspondence with FedLoan Servicing and DOE ''. 

Since this last XX/XX/XXXX correspondence, I still have yet to receive any update or decision on my XXXX ECF, which was submitted nearly six ( 6 ) months ago. In years prior, it has generally taken FedLoan Servicing a few weeks to provide its approval of my annual ECF. 

On Friday, XX/XX/XXXX, I was offered an appealing full-time employment position that would not qualify for the PSLF program. I rejected said employment offer on the grounds that my current employer qualifies for PSLF and has qualified since XXXX, and pursuant to my completion of the PSLF program, I will obtain forgiveness of my six-figure student loan debt in XXXX.