Consumer complaint received 2024-10-02 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: CA

Complaint narrative:
I am writing to make a formal complaint about my former student loan debt service providers, XXXX and Mohela. I have been a teacher since XXXX, and got my PhD in XXXX. Because I have been the victim of these companies fraudulent practices, which have been in legal settlement in the past few years, I am requesting an immediate and full forgiveness of my student loans by my current servicer, XXXX, who has taken over as of XX/XX/XXXX. 

As outlined in this article in XX/XX/XXXX by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, XXXX engaged in criminal business practices, of which I have been a victim. CFPB XXXX XXXX XXXX said, To keep costs low, XXXX encouraged its employees to push borrowers into forbearance, a much quicker and cheaper option for the company. This approach allowed XXXX to process more calls in less time, boosting their bottom line. However, it came at a severe cost to borrowers, whose balances swelled with accrued and capitalized interest and who were denied the opportunity to enroll in repayment plans that could have significantly lowered their monthly payments and set them on a path to loan cancellation. 
This is exactly what happened to me. After finishing my PhD in XXXX, and finding myself in a higher education job market that was severely contracted after the XXXX recession and paying adjunct professors wages at an average of $ XXXX a year, I struggled to get XXXX to agree to an income-based repayment plan that wasnt over 30 % of my income. Because I am also housing cost-burdened by living in the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX was truly impossible to pay what their payment plans offered. They were very generous, I thought at the time, to offer me deferment. I now realize, as I apply and fail to get loan forgiveness because I havent made XXXX payments, that I was a victim of these fraudulent practices. 

When Mohela became my new provider, the situation was exactly the same. I was pushed into deferment, they failed to offer an income-based repayment plan that was feasible in any way, and my interest has now accrued to the point where I owe {$260000.00} for my PhD. In XXXX, I owed what seemed like a terrifying and astronomical sum of {$110000.00}. Because of XXXX and Mohelas deliberate misrepresentation and deception, I find myself in a terrible and untenable situation.

Finally, I applied for Mohelas income-based repayment plan. According to their website, repayment amounts can be no more than 30 % of your income. On XX/XX/XXXX, they denied my request to pay {$150.00} a month and replied with an amount that was over 40 % of my monthly income. Because I no longer exist in XXXX records, and there is no record on Mohela of their denial of my income-based request form, beyond the date. Adding to their shady business practices is not keeping records which would allow me to come back to them with solid information. 

Every time my debts are sold to a new company, this starts all over for me. It has caused years of XXXX XXXX, XXXX, and panic about my future. I have done everything right- got the best degree I could, taught in colleges and now in high schools. I will never be able to crawl out from under this, and this is because like so many others, I have been victimized. Thank you for your help.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation