About the Program
Working at a government or not-for-profit organization might make you eligible to get your Direct Loans forgiven through the federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program after 10 years of working in public service while making qualifying payments.
If you haven’t signed up for PSLF yet, you still can. You will need to repeat some of these items annually to continue qualifying. One important step is working with our agency’s PSLF contact each year to submit a PSLF form. While the path to loan forgiveness can be complicated, you could save thousands on your student loans.
Qualifications
To apply for PSLF you must meet the following qualifications:
Have Federal Direct Loans
This includes Direct Subsidized loans, Direct Unsubsidized loans, Direct Consolidation loans, and Direct Grad PLUS loans. If you have Perkins Loans, FFEL loans or Direct Parent PLUS loans, you must consolidate them into a Direct Consolidation loan to make them eligible. Before you consolidate, make sure you need to. That’s because consolidating can erase qualifying payments you may have already made.
Work Full Time for a Public Employer
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) defines “full time” as working at least 30 hours/week. This includes multiple part-time public jobs where your combined work equals at least 30 hours/week.
- If you are part time faculty at an institution of higher education, we will multiply your in-class teaching hours by 3.35 to calculate your hours worked for PSLF.
Enroll in an Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) Plan
These include Income-Based Repayment (IBR), Pay As You Earn (PAYE), Revised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE), and Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR). Payments you make on the 10-year Standard Repayment plan are also eligible for the PSLF program.
Make 120 On-time, Complete Payments
Your payments do not need to be consecutive (i.e., you need 10 full years to qualify but these 10 years don’t need to happen all in a row). However, you must be employed full-time at a public employer when you make a payment. After you make 120 qualifying payments, ED will forgive your remaining loan balance.
Forms and Tools
To complete and submit a PSLF form use the PSLF Help Tool.
Use the PSLF Washington State Agency Directory to identify the correct PSLF contact email and Employer Identification Number (EIN) for your current and former employers. Once your PSLF form has been digitally signed by our agency’s contact, using the PSLF Help Tool, it will be submitted directly to the PSLF servicer for processing.