Dept. of Education provides relief to IDR borrowers

The U.S. Department of Education announced on April 19 that it will implement several new changes to help borrowers who were enrolled in income-driven repayment (IDR) forgiveness programs, including the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, and who may have been unfairly denied forgiveness due to mismanagement of the programs. To address borrowers whose payments may have been miscounted, the Department will do a one-time recount and allow any payment made – regardless of the repayment plan the borrower was using at the time – to count as qualifying for IDR. To assist borrowers who were steered into forbearance by loan servicers when they could have been enrolled in an IDR plan, the Department will conduct a one-time account adjustment that will count time spent in forbearance for certain borrowers toward forgiveness under IDR.