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Yurou Guan | Moment | Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Under the Trump administration, more than 72,000 student loan borrowers<\/a> who are likely eligible for debt forgiveness are stuck in a backlog<\/a> of applications waiting for the relief<\/a>.<\/p>\n Some of them, like 46-year-old April Osteen, owe just a single payment. Others, like Dan Carrigg of Rhode Island, have been waiting a year for the government to respond to their application.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are no updates,\u201d Carrigg said. \u201cThey tell you nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n The program experiencing the challenges is known as Public Service Loan Forgiveness Buyback<\/a>.<\/p>\n That opportunity, first offered by the Biden administration, allows borrowers who qualify to have their debt excused under PSLF to retroactively pay the U.S. Department of Education \u2014 or \u201cbuy back\u201d \u2014 any months they missed because they were enrolled in a forbearance<\/a> or deferment. (Those are different periods during which borrowers\u2019 loan payments are on hold.)<\/p>\n PSLF, which President George W. Bush signed into law in 2007, allows certain not-for-profit and government employees to have their federal student loans canceled after 120 payments, or 10 years.<\/p>\n The Buyback program became especially popular after courts blocked the Biden-era Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE, plan in the summer of 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n Millions of student loan borrowers who signed up for SAVE were automatically enrolled in a forbearance. Those borrowers found their progress towards PSLF frozen throughout the SAVE payment pause, even as they continued to work in eligible public service.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n How could I be one payment away from loan forgiveness, only to be told I couldn\u2019t make that final payment?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n The latest court filing<\/a> shows 72,730 PSLF buyback requests were pending\u00a0with the U.S. Department of Education as of the end of July. The bottleneck has only worsened since June, when 65,448 applications<\/a> were under review by the Trump administration. In May, the backlog was close to\u00a059,000<\/a>.<\/p>\n (The Education Dept. has regularly shared the data on pending buyback requests as part of a lawsuit the American Federation of Teachers filed against it. The teacher\u2019s union alleges the agency is blocking borrowers from their rights.)<\/p>\n \u201cThe Biden Administration introduced the Public Service Loan Forgiveness buy-back program to allow borrowers to \u2018buy\u2019 eligibility into the program \u2014 weaponizing a legal discharge plan for political purposes,\u201d said Ellen Keast, deputy press secretary at the Education Department.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Department is working its way through this backlog while ensuring that borrowers have submitted the required 120 payments of qualifying employment,\u201d Keast said.<\/p>\n CNBC spoke with three of the borrowers in the buyback backlog about how the delayed loan cancellation is affecting them.<\/p>\n \u201cLong delays in PSLF buyback processing must be corrected immediately so that public service workers who have provided essential local services are not deprived of the relief they\u2019ve earned,\u201d said Jaylon Herbin, director of federal campaigns at the Center for Responsible Lending.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n April Osteen with her dog<\/p>\n Courtesy: April Osteen<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Osteen, an administrative coordinator at the University of South Carolina, submitted her buyback request in January. Nearly seven months later, she still hasn\u2019t received an answer from the Education Department.<\/p>\n The government has recorded that she\u2019s made 119 out of the 120 required qualifying payments for PSLF \u2014 and so she\u2019s trying to buy back just one monthly payment to get her debt cleared. Her momentum toward the relief was stalled during the SAVE issues.<\/p>\n \u201cI reached out repeatedly to both my loan servicer and the Department of Education, practically begging for help,\u201d said Osteen. \u201cAt one point, I remember telling a representative, \u2018I just want to pay\u2014please let me pay!'\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow could I be one payment away from loan forgiveness, only to be told I couldn\u2019t make that final payment?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n More from Personal Finance:<\/strong> Osteen\u2019s roughly $26,000 remaining student loan balance prevents her from taking on new expenses, even for urgent repairs needed on her house in Simpsonville, South Carolina.<\/p>\n \u201cI need to address issues like diseased Sycamore trees that pose a safety risk, a collapsing wooden fence and serious drainage problems in the backyard and driveway,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Her monthly student loan payments of up to around $350 have made it difficult to save throughout her career. Without much in savings, she considered taking out a personal loan to pay for the work on her house. But then she thought of her education debt.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m hesitant to take on a new monthly payment while I still owe student debt \u2014 debt that should have already been discharged under the PSLF program,\u201d Osteen said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis uncertainty continues to shape every financial decision I make.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Josh Harner<\/p>\n Courtesy: Josh Harner<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Josh Harner, a teacher at a prison in Illinois, has been waiting for a response from the Education Department to his buyback request since early December \u2014 more than eight months ago.<\/p>\n His loan account shows that he\u2019s made 117 qualifying monthly PSLF payments, though he says he\u2019s worked far longer in the public sector. During his over-decade-long career, Harner has helped more than 250 people earn their GED credential, a high school diploma equivalent, he said.<\/p>\n And so he said it\u2019s frustrating to be waiting so long for loan forgiveness. His remaining balance is a little over $120,000.<\/p>\n \u201cI check my email 10 times a day,\u201d Harner, 38, said, about his buyback request.<\/p>\n \u201cI have taken every step \u2014 countless phone calls, emails, complaints,\u201d he said. \u201cThe federal government can\u2019t handle the management of all these loans.\u201d<\/p>\n The main reason Harner wants his debt erased, he said, is so that he can save more for his 15-year-old son\u2019s upcoming college bills, and hopefully spare him from the stresses of student loans.<\/p>\n \u201cIt will feel much better saving the money toward my son\u2019s education,\u201d Harner said. \u201cI didn\u2019t want him to have to worry about how to pay for college or getting into debt to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Dan Carrigg<\/p>\n Courtesy: Dan Carrigg<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Carrigg, an associate teaching professor at the University of Rhode Island, submitted his buyback request a year ago, in Aug. 2024. He\u2019s listed as having made 108 out of the 120 qualifying payments.<\/p>\n \u201cI have considerably more than 10 years [of] certified employment,\u201d said Carrigg, 41.<\/p>\n Carrigg has contacted his local lawmakers and his state attorney general about the issue, but has had no success. \u201cI still call Federal Student Aid<\/a> every week or two,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t know what else to do.\u201d<\/p>\n He has been unable to get his remaining roughly $15,000 student debt excused.<\/p>\n \u201cI am trying to pay Uncle Sam and taxpayers a lump sum of money to complete and finish off my loan, but I cannot get FSA [Federal Student Aid] to provide me with the offer letter that states how much I should make the check out for.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd without that, I cannot pay them,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is maddening.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Throughout his life, Carrigg said, he\u2019s needed to make a number of sacrifices because of his student debt.<\/p>\n He\u2019s taken on a second teaching job at night, and forgoes many discretionary purchases.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t take vacations every year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n With his student debt forgiven, he and his wife would be able to direct more money toward their mortgage with the goal of no longer having a housing payment in their later decades.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not so young anymore,\u201d Carrigg said.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd we can start saving a bit more for retirement, which is now coming up faster and faster,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re getting closer to Medicare age than student loan age.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
\u2018Uncertainty continues to shape every financial decision\u2019<\/h2>\n
Trump floats tariff \u2018rebate\u2019 for consumers<\/a>
Student loan forgiveness may soon be taxed again<\/a>
Student loan borrowers \u2014 how will the end of the SAVE plan impact you? Tell us<\/a><\/p>\n\u2018I check my email 10 times a day\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018They tell you nothing\u2019<\/h2>\n
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