Consumer complaint received 2020-11-18
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Trouble with how payments are being handled
Company: AES/PHEAA (NY)

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX I received a letter from Fed Loan regarding my updated number of qualifying payments for PSLF ( Public Student Loan Forgiveness ), which totaled 61 payments, making my projected date of forgiveness at or around XX/XX/XXXX ( see attached file for details ). As reflected in this file, I have worked at the same institution XXXX XXXX  XXXX XXXX in XXXX, NY XXXX since I started PSLF in XXXX. Each year, I have submitted my Employment Certification form along with my IDR renewal application in or around XXXX. This year, I submitted both files on XX/XX/XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX I received notification that my employment certification form from XX/XX/XXXXXX/XX/XXXXhad been reviewed and approved and my updated number of qualifying payments for PSLF would be sent to me within the next few weeks. Unfortunately, as of the time of this letter, I have yet to receive an official letter from Fed Loan regarding this updated number. When I called and spoke with XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX ( Employee ID # XXXX ) she assured me that the updated PSLF payment count was still processing and that I should receive a letter within the next few weeks confirming an updated payment count of 73 ( which would include the newly approved 12 payments from XX/XX/XXXX-XX/XX/XXXX XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX I called back to speak with a representative since I had still not received an updated qualifying payment letter as was assured to me by the representative I had spoken to on XX/XX/XXXX. I spoke to XXXX XXXX Employee ID # XXXX ) and was told that the total number of approved payments had actually decreased from 61 total down to 54 despite the approved employment certification from XX/XX/XXXX-XX/XX/XXXXXXXX the new payment count was supposed to be ~73 with these dates added in ). As per XXXX, when she looked at my records, she could see that there were 11 months that were previously approved as qualifying PSLF payments that were now not coming up as not approved. She could not explain the rationale for why this had occurred and therefore she submitted my account for a manual review ( which, as of the time of this letter, is still pending ). Additionally, between the period of XXXX XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, she stated that my account was marked as in a voluntary forbearance and no payments were received for those months. This was prior to all of my loans being transferred from my prior servicer, XXXX, to Fed Loan on XX/XX/XXXX. Since I had never requested to be in a forbearance during this time period with XXXX and since I had made monthly qualifying payments via an income based payment plan, XXXX suggested that I contact my bank XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  to obtain copies of my monthly statements outlining that payments were made from XX/XX/XXXX XX/XX/XXXX. 

Attached is a copy of my bank statements from XXXX XXXX XXXX fromXX/XX/XXXX-XX/XX/XXXXwhich shows recurring monthly payments to XXXX for my federal loans of approximately {$330.00}. Then, on XX/XX/XXXX, prior to my loans being transferred from XXXX to Fed Loan on XX/XX/XXXX, I made a one-time payment of {$380.00}. All of these payments were made via an income based repayment plan and occurred at or around the XXXX of each month. Given that I was making regular payments during this time frame via an approved payment plan ( IBR ) and had never requested to be in a voluntary forbearance, I submitted a letter with supporting bank statement documentation to Fed Loan on XX/XX/XXXX asking for the forbearance from this time period to be removed from my account. In addition, I requested that the 12 payments from XX/XX/XXXX-XX/XX/XXXX be counted towards my total number of qualifying payments for PSLF. This would be in addition to the other 11 months of qualifying payments that I was told were previously approved and now have been removed from my account, thus prompting the manual review submission. Therefore, between those 2 discrepancies, we are looking at, in total, 23 payments, which should be credited to my account, particularly since these same payments were previously counted as qualifying payments as per the itemized payment certification count letter I received from Fed Loan in XX/XX/XXXX XXXX see attachment ). 

On XX/XX/XXXX I contacted Fed Loan again and spoke to XXXX XXXX Employee ID # XXXX ) who confirmed that they had received my letter and supporting documentation and would be applying this information to the manual review. Then, on XX/XX/XXXX, I called Fed Loan to follow up on the status of my review and spoke to XXXX XXXX Employee ID # XXXX ) who, at first, told me that he could not see that any manual review had been done on the payment dates in question and the forbearance was still coming up on my account. XXXX stated he could not help me any further and connected me with a specialist named XXXX ( Employee ID # XXXX ) who assured me that the payments in question were still under review by the federal government. I was told that this process can be extensive and can take " a long time '' and thus no estimated time table was given to me with regards to when I should be expecting a resolution. XXXX again confirmed that they were in receipt of my letter and supporting documentation from XXXX and told me they would be in touch at some undisclosed time period once the review was finalized. 

As of the time of this letter, I have not received any written documentation from Fed Loan outlining any changes to my total payment amounts and I am still waiting for a resolution to my issue. This is concerning since the changes they are suggesting pushes my estimated date of forgiveness with PSLF back by at least 2 years, if not more.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief