What Other Student Loan Repayment or Forgiveness Options Are Available?

Posted on February 12, 2018 at 12:00pm by
defaulting on student loans

Our blog has recently covered several aspects of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program operated by the Department of Education. Recent blogs have informed you on eligibility requirements for PSLF. However, there are additional forgiveness options for specific types of federal student loans.

  1. Teacher Loan Forgiveness Program: The Department of Education’s Teacher Loan Forgiveness Program may allow you to have $17,500 in student loans forgiven. You would have to teach for five consecutive academic years at a low-income school and meet other qualifications. However, you must have certain types of federal loans to qualify. There are also other eligibility requirements for this program listed on the Department of Education’s website.
  2. Military loan repayment or forgiveness programs: There are multiple federal student loan forgiveness options for members of the armed forces. You could enroll in PSLF while serving. The Army Student Loan Repayment Program could repay up 33.33 percent of your principal balance for three years if you are active duty and meet other qualifications. There are additional programs for other branches of the military. However, it is important to ensure that you meet the eligibility requirements for these programs during the enlistment or officer commission process.
  3. State loan repayment programs: Depending on your career choice, you could be eligible to enroll in a state loan forgiveness program. For example, Missouri has several of these programs for health care workers. The Missouri Health Professional State Loan Repayment Program allows qualifying health care professionals for receive loan forgiveness for practicing in Health Professional Shortage Areas. Missouri has additional student loan help programs that we may cover in future blog updates.
  4. Various other repayment and forgiveness programs: The Department of Education has additional forgiveness programs for student loan borrowers. However, some of these programs have become more difficult to access in the past year. If you meet the eligibility requirements, the “closed-school discharge” and “permanent and total disability discharge” may be options you want to consider.

Do You Qualify for Student Loan Repayment or Forgiveness Options?

PSLF may not be around much longer. Therefore, you may want to determine whether you qualify for any of the additional options listed above. Loan servicers have been accused of doing a poor job on educating borrowers about helpful loan repayment or forgiveness options. You may continue following our blog for future updates on repayment or forgiveness options that may be available. For future updates, continue following the Kansas City student loan attorneys on Facebook and Twitter.