Consumer complaint received 2025-10-29 00:00:00
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Struggling to repay your loan — Problem with forgiveness, cancellation, or discharge
Company: Maximus Federal Services, Inc.
State: FL

Complaint narrative:
In XXXX of this year it was brought to my attention by the Veterans Affairs that there was a Treasury Offset on my name. I contacted the US Treasury and they gave me the information on student loans from the Dept of Education being in Default. I then called the Dept of Education to inquire on this. The rep on the phone on XX/XX/XXXX said yes your student loans are back in default and the Dept of Ed will begun offsetting your government VA Pension and XXXX pension. I said my loans were discharged through the Total and permanent XXXX program back in XXXX through XXXX. The rep advised me to call XXXX to discuss this because that is not the information they have and could not provide me with any further information. I then began calling XXXX which was the loan servicer for TPD student loans. When i spoke to the rep on XX/XX/XXXX with XXXX they advised me at that time they were only allowed to view information only in due to their systems going down and they were no longer going to be the loan servicer of TPD loans. I explained my situation to the rep at XXXX she confirmed that in their computers my loans were discharged on XX/XX/XXXX. She placed me on hold to speak to her supervisor. Once she came back she apologized and said unfortunately they are not permitted to send information over to Dept of ED because their systems are going down. She advised me to call back to Dept of Ed in XXXX to XXXX weeks when a new loan servicer would be set up as the TPD servicer. I said this makes no sense you can see that my loans in your system are discharged I went through the whole 3 year period with XXXX and you can confirm they were discharged on XX/XX/XXXX of XXXX and you cant push that information over to Dept of ED?? She said yes unfortunately we dont not have that ability now. I then began calling Dept of Education and spoke to several different reps on XX/XX/XXXX. The rep advised me to log onto the XXXX website and reapply for a TPD application in hopes that when i new servicer is awarded that the system will find all that information and correct itself. I said this makes absolutely no sense that Dept of Education cant contact XXXX and correct this matter internally?? The rep said he their dept has no way of communicating with them. So on XX/XX/XXXX I logged onto my student aide.gov account for the first time in nearly 8 years. Upon logging in and to this day it still shows on the XXXX XXXX account that my loans were in fact discharged through the TPD program on XX/XX/XXXX but at the same time it shows all my loans are in default to. I called back to Dept of Ed again and brought this to the attention of the rep whom i was speaking to and they said that sounds incorrect and on their computer it shows my loans in default. The rep again advised me to refile another TPD discharge app in which I said ok this doesnt make sense but I did and used the same VA 100 percent award letter and my Soical security XXXX award letter that i used the first time with XXXX back in XXXX. The rep told me it would take XXXX to XXXX weeks before they began processing these due to a new loan servicer being established. So i waited until the XXXX of XXXX to call back to inquire to the Dept of Education and they said a servicer still had not been assigned to call back in XXXX. I called once again on XX/XX/XXXX and i was then told my application began the review process on XX/XX/XXXX and that it would typically take XXXX days to process to keep trying back at that time. I also inquired with the rep at that time who the new loan servicer was for TPD. She told me it was the Default Resolution group and that there was a direct line to them and provided that to me XXXX. I was also logging on to the student aide.gov website during this time to view the status of my application and all it said was my application was under review and was submitted XX/XX/XXXX. Right under that it showed my completed TPD application from XXXX and still said all my loans were discharged as of XXXX XXXX. Called XX/XX/XXXX to the default resolution group was informed that app was in final stage of review that there was XXXX stages of the review process. The rep confirmed that my TPD application went into review on XXXX and should be finalized in the next XXXX to XXXX  days. I again inquired about my previous TPD discharge from XXXX to this rep, She could not provide me with any information and for the first time a rep advised me to go onto the XXXX XXXXXXXX portal and file a complaint about this. So i followed her directions and did just that. In the complaint i filed i attached copies of the email I received from XXXX discharge group back in XXXX confirming my discharge was finished and copies of the award letters. I received a case number from student aide.gov when i submitted this. XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX logged onto student aid web portal and saw my application was still under review however it said updated XX/XX/XXXX. So i called in to the Default Resolution group. This rep advised me the application was still under review that my medical records were being specifically reviewed. I informed him that i never turned in any medical records the only 2 documents turned in were my VA 100 percent award letter and my XXXX  award letter. He seemed confused about what i was saying. I also asked about the complaint i filed and he said he doesnt see any complaint filed on my account i even referenced the before mentioned case number above. He apologized and advised me to refile the complaint again. I asked if he had a time frame on how much longer the review would be. He claimed that the system is backlogged and they are short staffed he had no specific timeline. I also asked about my previous TPD discharge and as to why i was having to go through this whole process again. He said he can see my other discharge from XXXX but did not know why the loans were back in default. I said wait you can see this? Then how do i get this investigated? Who else do I need to speak to? Why cant your department contact XXXX and XXXX and figure this all out. He then tells me there is no way for them to communicate with XXXX or another loan servicer. I said this sounds absolutely ridiculous that you are working for the dept of Ed and you cant even contact them. He said no the ( back office ) does that and they have no direct line to speak to them. He advised me to file a complaint again on the student aide portal. I finished that call by saying that is your departments answer for everything just to file a complaint on the portal yet no one ever responds. On XX/XX/XXXX the status of my new TPD application on the student aide portal said review but updated XX/XX/XXXX. Yet when you click on the application online under the status tracker there is nothing but a blank page. So yet again i called Default resolution group to get a status. This gentleman proceeds to inform me that my application was scanned into the cue in XX/XX/XXXX and rejected and sent back to be processed, and in XXXX my application was scanned again into the cue and rejected. He says the note claims that the documents could not be read and was awaiting to be manually assigned which he did not have a processing time. I was speechless i told him i have been calling in each of the past 5 months and no one ever mentioned this to me. How are the documents not legible to be read?? They are printed award letters from the VA and XXXX. He advised me to upload them again and have them reprocessed. I said are you kidding me right now I demanded to speak to his supervisor. He placed me on hold them came back and said oh yes i now see your documents they look fine. I told him i still wanted to speak to a supervisor he said he had no way of transferring a call and recommended that i allow a few more weeks to have this process again. I once again went onto the student aid portal and filed not 1 but 2 complaints about the status of this application and my previous application that was approved and closed back in XXXX case numbers XXXX, XXXX. I still at this time have not had a response on the previous complaints filed. XX/XX/XXXX XXXX  called XXXX XXXX group was informed app is still under review and there is no exact timeline on completion. I went into detail explaining my situation over the past 6 months. She said sir i do not see any complaints filed on your account. I referenced all the previous case complaint numbers to her she said she sees nothing on my account and advised me to file another complaint. I said what else can i do or who else can I contact in reference to this? Its obvious that there is a major issue your department is telling callers to file a complaint and ye when we do nothing is being done about it no response no call back and now your saying you cant see anything ever being filed. Rep apologized several times and said there was nothing more she could do. I went onto the student aide portal and yet again filed 2 more complaints XXXX. Frustrated I called XXXX XXXX group at XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX. Spoke to rep about everything the earlier rep had told me that day. He asked me to give him a few moments to look over the account. He admitted he was very confused by everything he saw. He said this is obviously is several errors that have been made on the previous loan servicers, He referenced XXXX XXXX, debit collection group, debt management group XXXX and default resolution group and he said he has seen this before where lack of communication between the loan servicers and for some reason the loans had been sent to collection agencies. He could not understand why the loans came out of discharge status. He further stated that i should file a complaint against the loan servicers. He said like the previous rep weeks ago that the app was rejected in XXXX then again in XXXX and was going to be rejected again in XXXX. He said there is to many internal errors and this app will not process. I asked him who do i need to speak to fix this. He advised me to file an complaint and also referenced contacting an ombudsman which he said is a student loan advocate. I told him i cant believe there isnt anyone directly that i can speak to? He said unfortunately filing a complaint on the portal is the only way to reach the dept of ED. I told him since XXXX i have filed XXXX complaints on the portal, made XXXX calls to XXXX, XXXX, and the default resolution group and yet here we are 7 months later and nothing has been resolved.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation