Consumer complaint received 2026-04-17 00:00:00
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Struggling to repay your loan — Problem with forgiveness, cancellation, or discharge
Company: Servicer under contract with Federal Student Aid
State: WA

Complaint narrative:
Per my prior Federal Student Aid ombudsman complaints ( # XXXX ( submitted XX/XX/XXXX ) ; # XXXX ( submitted XX/XX/XXXX ) ; & # XXXX ( submitted XX/XX/XXXX ), I was not given the opportunity to take advantage of the one-time student forgiveness options in XXXX. As noted in prior complaints, my concerns have still not been addressed by FedStudentAid ( FSA ), nor have I received any official documented response from FSA regarding these prior complaints. The lack of response is further injuring FSA 's ability to process my loan remedy request. Background : I was a XXXX XXXX ( starting with XXXX XXXX in XXXX XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX in XXXX XXXX XXXX ). I have been under the income-based repayment program with PSLF since XXXX, when I consolidated my XXXX and XXXX loans. I planned to be a public servant and participate in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness ( PSLF ) program. I was a XXXX parent throughout my education and built up quite a lot of student loan debt, but I still wanted my children to be able to participate in college as well. My oldest daughter went to college, with additional XXXX loans taken out to help fund her public college education, from XXXX. Unfortunately, my youngest daughter was unable to go to college due to the high debts I had already committed to repaying. When President Biden announced a one-time student loan forgiveness for PSLF borrowers in XX/XX/XXXX, I thought this was my chance to have my additional employment in XXXX with XXXX XXXX counted because it was not counted under the prior PSLF 's rules. As noted throughout documented phone calls with agents starting in XX/XX/XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX, I called regularly to request information regarding my PSLF status, especially during the XX/XX/XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX timeframe. Not a single FSA representative told me that I would be eligible for a one-time offer to forgive ALL of the loans together under any special one-time rules. Notice of these rules was not provided despite hours of telephone conversations with FSA representatives. Thus, I was unaware I was able to consolidate my educational loans with my PLUS loans because I thought that such action would " restart '' the 10-year requirement for my educational loans, which were in line to be forgiven. I thought I had no choice to consolidate whatsoever, and I was never told otherwise by and FSA representative until XX/XX/XXXX, when I called to check on the status of my PSLF student loan forgiveness. During a XX/XX/XXXX, telephone inquiry, I was notified by the FSA representative XXXX XXXX # XXXX ) that I should have consolidated everything, including the PLUS loan, before requesting forgiveness. I explained that I was never told this information and that this information goes against the PSLF 's longstanding rule that any consolidation actions would wipe out my prior 10-plus years under the PSLF. On that XX/XX/XXXX call, the representative admitted that FSA staff were only recently told that they could consolidate PLUS loans without restarting the PSLF clock. I was shocked! The representative then told me that she talked to multiple people in my position and that she hoped for a collective administrative resolution. She encouraged me to file ombudsman complaints, which I did three times but received no answer from FSA - # XXXX, submitted XX/XX/XXXX ; # XXXX, submitted XX/XX/XXXX ; and # XXXX, submitted XX/XX/XXXX. Then I filed a congressional inquiry with XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX office, which FSA responded to in early XXXX with a form letter, failing to address FSA 's failure to disclose that PLUS and PSLF loans could have been consolidated and forgiven together under the XXXX rules. I even submitted a PSLF forgiveness application for my PLUS loans prior to XXXX in an attempt to get a proper administrative response to my timely requests for forgiveness. Had I known about this change in PSLF rules or had this even been shared with FSA representatives during the dozens of phone calls we had during XXXX and XXXX, I would have easily complied with any needs to ensure forgiveness of all of my loans. As a result of FSA 's failures to disclose the opportunity to consolidate all loans, our family 's future is jeopardized due to financial insecurities, and we do not have the income to spare to continue to pay PLUS loans that should have been forgiven in XXXX. I also had XXXX XXXX, a PSLF advocate, reach out in XX/XX/XXXX to follow up on this complaint. I was unable to obtain cell phone data to show my multiple calls to PSLF throughout XXXX and XXXX. However, I believe that my testimony and contemporaneous documentation is sufficient to proceed even without the cell phone company data and would like my case to be re-evaluated, please.

Company response to consumer: Untimely response