Consumer complaint received 2026-05-21 00:00:00
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Struggling to repay your loan — Problem with forgiveness, cancellation, or discharge
Company: Nelnet, Inc.
State: NY

Complaint narrative:
Dear XXXX Ombudsman : I am writing to formally dispute an error in the income-driven repayment ( IDR ) forgiveness tracking applied to two of my federal student loans. Despite these loans qualifying for forgiveness under the XXXX ( XXXX ) XXXX threshold, the system is applying the XXXX ( XXXX ) graduate threshold resulting in a forgiveness date of XX/XX/XXXX rather than approximately XXXX. I am requesting immediate review and correction of this classification error. I. Loan Identification The two loans in dispute are Direct Consolidation Loans with the following identifiers : Award ID : XXXX Loan Type D5, Outstanding Balance {$33000.00} ( principal + interest ) Award ID : XXXX Loan Type D6, Outstanding Balance {$17000.00} ( principal + interest ) Both loans are held by servicer code 580 and were updated in the IDR payment count system on XX/XX/XXXX. II. Basis of the Dispute My dispute rests on three independent grounds : 1. Loan type classification. Loan type codes D5 and D6 designate Direct Consolidation Loans that repaid undergraduate loans. Under Department of Education rules, undergraduate loan borrowers are entitled to forgiveness after 20 years ( 240 qualifying payments ), not 25 years ( 300 payments ). The 300-payment threshold applies only to borrowers whose consolidation included graduate-level debt. These loans originated from undergraduate borrowing at the University of Virginia and should be subject to the 240-payment forgiveness threshold. 2. Repayment history. The consolidated loans entered repayment in XXXX. As of the date of this letter, over 26 years of repayment history have accumulated. The one-time IDR account adjustment, completed XX/XX/XXXX, credited 264 qualifying payments to these loans. The 240-payment threshold for undergraduate borrowers was therefore reached approximately in XXXX. Continued assessment of an outstanding balance and a XXXX forgiveness date is inconsistent with the applicable forgiveness timeline. 3. Internal system inconsistency. The XXXX payment tracking data itself reflects this error. Under both the IBR ( XXXX ) and PAYE plan trackers, both D5 and D6 loans show forgivenessRemainingPayments : XXXX confirming that the 240-payment threshold has been met. The system simultaneously shows 36 payments remaining under the IBR/ICR/SAVE trackers, which apply the 300-payment standard. This internal contradiction indicates a plan classification or threshold assignment error, not a payment count discrepancy. III. Relief Requested I respectfully request that the FSA Ombudsman Group : 4. Review the loan type classification for Award IDs XXXX and XXXX and confirm whether the underlying loans were undergraduate in nature. 5. Correct the applicable forgiveness threshold from 300 payments ( 25 years ) to 240 payments ( 20 years ) if the loans are confirmed as undergraduate consolidations. 6. Discharge the outstanding balances on both loans immediately upon confirmation of the corrected threshold, as 264 qualifying payments already exceed the 240-payment requirement. 7. Provide written confirmation of the review findings and any actions taken within 30 days of receipt of this letter. IV. Prior Attempts to Resolve I am prepared to provide any additional documentation to support this dispute, including original loan disbursement records, consolidation history, and payment histories. I ask that this matter be treated as a priority given that the 240-payment threshold was met approximately five years ago and the continued accrual of interest on these balances represents ongoing financial harm. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation