Consumer complaint received 2024-07-09 00:00:00
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Trouble with how payments are being handled
Company: MOHELA
State: PA

Complaint narrative:
I am a XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXnd can only afford to do so by being in income-based repayment for my student loans and am on track to receive public student loan forgiveness in the next 3 years. I am contacting you because Mohela is in direct and blatant violation of federal edict and not allowing me to pursue PSLF nor pay back my loans. 

I previously paid {$300.00} per month for my loan payments. In XX/XX/XXXX I was told by Mohela that I had to recertify my income for XXXX and my payment went up significantly ( over {$1000.00} to about {$1400.00} ). On XX/XX/XXXX, I directed them to the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX guidance ( XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX ) which states this was a mistake and that I should not have to recertify and the US govt would be reverting payments back to prior levels for anyone whose payments had gone up because of this. I was told over the phone by Mohela that they are placing people in administrative/processing forbearance to allow this to happen as they wait for US Dept of Educ guidance . She clarified that processing forbearance will be counted toward public service. I was placed on XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX. 

I called back about a month later since my payments had not been adjusted yet. Mohela said they were still working on it and they re-requested administrative forbearance and submitted a request to have my IDR payment reset back to the prior payment level ( ~ {$300.00} ). Mohela again said that Mohela will work with the department of education to reset it. The representative said she has seen lots of people getting their payments successfully recalculated per the dept of education new guidance so did not seem worried. She said that those months of forbearance should count for PSLF. 

I called back in XX/XX/XXXX when I received an email that my payments would restart and at the higher level of XXXX ( i.e. they had not been returned to the prior level per US dept of education guidance ). Mohela said that this should not have happened and placed me in forbearance again to address the issue on their end and return me to lower payments. 

I contacted Mohela again today ( XX/XX/XXXX ) to inquire as to why I was still in forbearance 4 months later ( and not been able to pay my loans and get credit for PSLF for those months ) since Mohela had to do was to return my payments to my prior level. Mohela informed me that they have not reverted my payments to the prior payment level and that they will not be doing so. I directed them again to the federal student aid website which clearly states in my case what should have happened ( revert to prior payment until next recertification date ). Mohela told me clearly and specifically that they will NOT be following the federal guidance and so they will not return my payment to the prior level and that I have to pay the higher loan repayment level. 

This seems like a direct violation of federal edict. I stated that clearly and asked Mohela to clarify and the person clarified with a supervisor that this is Mohela 's policy. The icing on the cake is that I am now hearing that these forbearance payments will NOT count for PSLF, despite being specifically told so multiple times by Mohela before agreeing to it.

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation