11 Student Loan Forgiveness Programs And How To Qualify

For many college graduates, student loan debt is a burden that can follow them for years or even decades after receiving their diplomas.

For a lucky few, though, relief may be possible, thanks to a few different student loan forgiveness programs that allow student loan debt to be forgiven for eligible borrowers. Let’s take a look at how these programs work and who qualifies for forgiveness.

What Is Student Loan Forgiveness?

Student loan forgiveness programs give students who qualify the option to have their federal student loan debt canceled or discharged. This is sometimes also known as student loan cancellation.

Only certain borrowers qualify for student loan forgiveness, and it’s only available on federal loans. If you have private student loans, those loans won’t be eligible for forgiveness.

Student Loan Forgiveness Vs. Student Loan Discharge

There are a variety of different terms related to paying off student loans, and it's important to understand them. Student loan forgiveness, cancellation and discharge all essentially mean the same thing – that you are no longer required to make payments on your student loan debt – but refer to slightly different situations.

When your student debt has been forgiven or canceled, you’re no longer required to make payments because your job has qualified you to have your debt forgiven – certain teachers, for example, can qualify for forgiveness because their job provides a valuable public service.

Student loan discharge refers to when you are no longer required to make payments due to extraordinary circumstances, such as your school closing or a total and permanent disability. Student loan discharge is rare — most borrowers are more likely to be affected by student loan forgiveness.

Whichever type of situation you’re in, the result is typically the same: You’re free from the obligation to pay the remaining balance on your student loans.

How Do Student Loan Forgiveness Programs Work?

Ridding themselves of monthly student loan payments is likely something every borrower would like to do, but who is eligible for this option?

For the most part, loan forgiveness is limited in scope and is only available to government or nonprofit employees or teachers who meet certain requirements and those who are experiencing certain types of hardship.

Even those who believe themselves to be eligible for these programs may have a hard time getting approved; for example, a very small percentage of those who applied for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program have been accepted.

The requirements for each type of forgiveness or discharge are different. Let’s take a look at all the different programs that are available for borrowers at the federal level, and how you can qualify.

5 Student Loan Forgiveness Programs

Here are some of the options available to student loan borrowers for loan forgiveness at the federal level.

1. Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) Forgiveness

Income-driven repayment (IDR) forgiveness plans allow borrowers to make monthly payments on their federal loans that are based on a percentage of their income, helping to ensure that their monthly payments don’t exceed what they can afford. Repayment periods on these plans range from 20 – 25 years, after which any remaining balance on your loans will be forgiven.

However, forgiveness on these types of plans isn’t guaranteed; if your income is high enough that you can completely pay off the balance by the time you’ve reached the end of your repayment period, you won’t receive any forgiveness, since there will no longer be a balance to forgive.

There are four different plans available for income-driven repayment: REPAYE (Revised Pay As You Earn), PAYE (Pay As You Earn), IBR (Income-Based Repayment) and ICR (Income-Contingent Repayment). Any borrower with eligible loans can make payments under the ICR and REPAYE plans. Borrowers are only eligible for PAYE and IBR plans if the monthly payment you would make under one of these plans is less than the monthly payment you would make under the Standard Repayment Plan.

One very important note: Forgiveness on an income-driven repayment plan is taxable. While some types of forgiveness, cancellation and discharge aren’t considered to be taxable income, the amount of your loan that is forgiven at the end of your income-driven repayment period will be considered part of your annual income, and taxed accordingly.

2. Public Service Loan Forgiveness

Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) offers loan forgiveness to public servants who have made 10 years’ worth of student loan payments. More specifically, you’ll need to have made 120 qualifying monthly payments while working full-time for a government or nonprofit organization.

Studentaid.gov states that the nonprofit you work for typically has to be a tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) organization for your work there to qualify, and that organizations that don’t meet these criteria rarely qualify.

For the purposes of qualifying for PSLF, you’re considered a full-time employee if you work the greater of at least 30 hours per week or enough hours to meet your employer’s definition of full-time. You can also meet these criteria if you work multiple part-time jobs that equal an average of 30 hours per week, provided that each job is considered a qualifying employer.

This type of forgiveness is only available to those who have loans under the Direct Loan Program. However, if you have student loans with a different federal loan program, you can consolidate those loans into a Direct Consolidation Loan and become eligible. The catch is that only the payments you make on your Direct Consolidation Loan will be counted toward your 120 qualifying payments, so any payments you made prior to consolidating your loans won’t count.

To qualify for PSLF, you also must be on an income-driven repayment plan.

Studentaid.gov recommends that those who are working toward qualifying for PSLF submit an Employment Certification Form each year and any time they change employers to keep track of their progress. To begin the form and find out whether you could qualify for forgiveness, you can use the PSLF Help Tool.

3. Teacher Loan Forgiveness

Teachers with Direct or Federal Family Education Loans may be eligible for up to $17,500 forgiveness. What’s more, depending on their eligibility, an individual could potentially qualify for forgiveness under both the Teacher Loan Forgiveness Program and PSLF.

To be eligible for this type of forgiveness, you’ll need to have been a full-time teacher for 5 consecutive years at an elementary or secondary school that serves low-income students. You can find out if your school qualifies by checking if it’s listed in the Teacher Cancellation Low Income Directory.

How much you could receive depends on the subject you teach. Secondary-level math or science teachers and elementary- or secondary-level special education teachers are eligible for up to $17,500 in forgiveness. If you teach a different subject, you can receive up to $5,000 in forgiveness.

What about qualifying for both Teacher Loan Forgiveness and PSLF? It’s possible, but it’s important to note that you can’t use the same period of time to qualify for both programs. So, if you used 5 consecutive years of teaching to qualify for Teacher Loan Forgiveness, the payments you made on your loans during those years won’t count toward the 120 monthly payments you need to qualify for PSLF.

As soon as you’ve completed 5 consecutive years of teaching, you can apply for this program by submitting an application to your loan servicer.

4. Military Student Loan Forgiveness

If you are a military service member or veteran, you have unique student loan benefits as one benefit of your service. You may qualify for the forgiveness programs listed here like PSLF, or have access to other waivers and programs that could reduce the amount you owe in student loans.

5. One-time Student Loan Debt Relief

The Biden Administration proposed a one-time student loan debt relief program in 2022. Eligible borrowers could qualify for up to $20,000 in debt relief if they received a Pell Grant while in college, or up to $10,000 in relief if they did not. Currently, courts have issued orders blocking this student debt relief program, so it is not currently accepting applicants. Still, this is a student loan forgiveness program that you should keep an eye on.

6 Student Loan Discharge Programs

In addition to student loan forgiveness programs, there are also some circumstances under which you can be granted a discharge of your student loan debt:

1. Closed School Discharge

You may be eligible for discharge if your school closed while you were enrolled or within 120 days of your withdrawal. However, if you’re able to transfer your credits to another school, you won’t be eligible for discharge.

2. Borrower Defense To Repayment Discharge

You may be eligible for discharge if your school defrauded you or engaged in certain types of illegal misconduct. If you believe the school you attended misled you or you can demonstrate that your school violated state law, this may be a good option for you.

3. Total And Permanent Disability Discharge

You may be eligible for discharge if you become totally and permanently disabled. To qualify, you’ll need to provide documentation certifying your disability.

4. Discharge Due to Death

Federal student loans will be discharged if the borrower dies, or if “the student on whose behalf a PLUS loan was taken out” dies. In other words, if your parents took out a loan on your behalf to pay for your education and you pass away, the debt would be discharged.

5. False certification discharge

You may be eligible for discharge if the school falsely certified your eligibility for the loan, or if they signed your name to the loan or accepted funds without your knowledge or permission and didn’t give you access to those funds.

6. Unpaid refund discharge

You may be eligible for discharge if you withdrew from school and your school didn’t return your loan funds to the servicer. In this case, only the portion that the school didn’t return would be discharged.

Alternatives To Student Loan Forgiveness And Discharge Programs

In addition to these options provided at the federal level, you may find that organizations in your state have their own programs available for graduates who are seeking assistance or forgiveness on their student loan debt. However, do thorough research on any programs you come across and watch out for scams that prey on those who are struggling to keep up with their student loan payments.

State Student Loan Assistance Programs

Qualified borrowers may be able to get additional student loan assistance through state programs. Many states provide student loan assistance programs to residents of their states. Here are just a few examples of the many programs out there:

• The Delaware State Loan Repayment Program offers up to $100,000 for Primary Care, Dental, and Mental Health Care professionals who serve in underserved areas in Delaware
• Ohio's John R. Justice Loan Repayment Program provides repayment of up to $1,054 for state and federal public defenders as well as state prosecutors who agree to remain employed for at least three years
• The Washington Health Professional Loan Repayment Program gives up to $35,000 per year for a two year period for licensed primary care health professionals who provide primary care health care in rural or underserved urban areas.

Loan Deferment Or Forbearance

Loan deferment and forbearance are two different student loan programs that allow you to temporarily suspend your payments. With student loan deferment, you can temporarily stop making payments on your loan for up to three years. Common reasons you can defer your loans include being in school, unemployed or experiencing economic hardship. You might also qualify for student loan forbearance if you are experiencing financial difficulty, you're currently in a medical or dental internship or residency or other reasons that your loan servicer accepts. Contact your loan servicer if you want to explore a loan deferment or forbearance.

The biggest difference between a student loan deferment and a forbearance is what happens to the interest on your total balance. If you qualify for a deferment, no interest will accrue on your student loans. On the other hand, during a forbearance period, interest will continue to accrue, which will raise your overall student loan balance.

Student Loan Refinancing

If you don't qualify for student loan forgiveness but still want to explore options to streamline or reduce their monthly payments, you might want to consider refinancing your loans. Student loan refinancing allows you to take disparate student loan programs and consolidate them with one lender. In many cases you may be able to reduce your interest rate and lower your overall monthly payment.

It's important to understand, however, that you can't refinance your student loans with the federal government. The only way to do a student loan refinance is through a private student loan lender. This means that after you refinance your loans, you may no longer be eligible for federal student loan forgiveness programs since your refinanced loan would be private now. Make sure to weigh the pros and cons of refinancing your student loans to determine if it's right for you.

FAQs On Student Loan Relief Programs

How do I apply for a student loan forgiveness program?

There are many different types of student loan forgiveness programs, and how you'll apply will vary. Check with your loan servicer or the Department of Education if you have questions on if you're eligible or how to apply.

How long does it take to get my student loans forgiven?

There are a variety of different student loan forgiveness programs, and they all work in slightly different ways. How long it takes to get your student loans forgiven will depend on your servicer, the forgiveness program you're in and a variety of other factors. Make sure you read the details of your forgiveness program and contact your loan servicer if you have any questions.

Can I have my private student loans forgiven?

Most student loan forgiveness programs work with federal student loans. If you have private student loans, the student loan forgiveness or discharge programs mentioned above will generally not be applicable. Private student loans are very rarely forgiven.

Can I get forgiveness on a defaulted student loan?

Historically, student loans that were in default were not eligible for any of the federal student loan forgiveness programs. However, the Biden Administration announced a "Fresh Start" initiative in April 2022. This initiative allows some borrowers who are in default to cure their default and potentially be eligible for forgiveness programs, depending on when default occurred.

The Bottom Line

There are several different student loan forgiveness programs, with different eligibility requirements and terms. If you are looking for a way to have your student loans forgiven, canceled or discharged, make sure to explore the different options. That way you'll make sure to choose the right option for you. And if you're looking for an easier way to manage debt and track your payment progress, check out and download the Rocket Money℠ mobile app today.