this article is reprinted by permission from nerdwallet for kristi cruz a legal aid attorney in seattle checking her federal student aid account to see if her debt would be discharged through the public service loan forgiveness program became a compulsion every day she logged in hoping to see her balance fall to 0 to no avail she described it as a drain on her mental health “it was frustrating and it feels like you’re being tormented” says cruz she had been battling her student loan servicer for two years after her first application for forgiveness was denied citing insufficient payments cruz wasn’t alone most who apply for the notoriously difficulttoget public service loan forgiveness program are rejected getting full debt discharge requires 120 qualifying payments made while working full time for an eligible employer such as a public school public hospital qualified nonprofit or the government borrowers like cruz have been left to their own devices to fight sometimes for years for payments to count toward the total needed for the forgiveness of their remaining debt as a result of public criticism the biden administration sought to make temporary improvements to rectify some of the flaws in the execution of the original program hence the pslf waiver it offers borrowers the opportunity to receive credit for past payments that didn’t meet the program’s stringent rules it launched in october 2021 and is available for borrowers through oct 31 2022 also see studentloan forgiveness will help narrow america’s racial wealth gap new report says but others call it ‘costly and ineffective’ the road to discharge is bumpy “the only way to explain it is it feels like you’re being gaslighted” says cruz of her experience with years of applying for forgiveness through pslf pslf has been in place since 2007 but has failed to deliver from nov 9 2020 to october 2021 when the waiver was put in place only 24 had been approved among all applications federal data from the education department show however the waiver has allowed approvals to grow by april 2022 federal data show that 10 of applicants had their debt discharged cruz first heard about pslf while attending seattle university school of law she completed her degree in 2008 with approximately 55000 in federal student loans over the next decade she made 120 payments in between occasional forbearances she intended to pursue pslf right away but the hiccups quickly began first her payments were more than she could afford on an entrylevel public defender’s salary “it’s embarrassing to say ‘i’m an attorney and i can’t afford this’ it was not talked about” says cruz she should have been directed to an incomedriven repayment plan which would have lowered her monthly payment and put her on track toward pslf before the waiver it was the only qualifying payment type read our studentloan system needs fixing and this change would be smarter than just forgiving debt she was on the wrong repayment plan for five years before enrolling in incomedriven repayment by then her salary had increased and she had gotten married which meant her husband’s income was also factored into her monthly payment amount “i get that my household income changed but my income didn’t change” says cruz “it’s my debt not my spouse’s debt” she stayed on the plan anyway so she could continue working toward pslf cruz says her payments ranged from 475 and 700 a month depending on the year along the way her husband was laid off which meant she needed to lower her payment which led to backandforth difficulties dealing with her servicer that led to forbearances while the mess was sorted out by march 2020 she had been working for 10 years she believed she was eligible for temporary expanded public service loan forgiveness the education department’s first piecemeal effort to fix inadequacies in the pslf process and applied instead cruz ended up with several denials without any explanations when the temporary waiver was announced last october cruz jumped on submitting another application a month later she logged into her account and saw the first 10000 of a 43000 total was forgiven she was confused she had seen on social media that other borrowers were seeing complete cancellation while she was still seemingly stuck in limbo “i love following stories on twitter twtr and seeing other people’s zero balances and i cheered them all on” says cruz “but i felt like it happened in this more painful slow process for me” communication through the forgiveness process was sporadic her federal student aid account was missing two years of payment history “it was as if i was in forbearance and i was not” she said so she submitted her payment history more waiting the rest of her debt was forgiven in dribs and drabs until april 15 when she logged into her account and finally saw the zero balance she had been waiting for “it felt wonderful” says cruz “i don’t have to keep logging in and refreshing” related ‘i feel deceived’ after 20 years of paying my student loan i discovered i don’t qualify for forgiveness my loans total 167000 what can i do how to get the pslf waiver cruz is one of more than 113000 borrowers who have seen their loan debt forgiven under the temporary waiver there’s no downside to applying if you think you may qualify for pslf through the waiver the pslf waiver counts past payments and repayment periods that previously didn’t meet the standard for qualifying payments including   payments equaling less than the full amount due   payments made on loans that previously did not qualify such as federal family education ffel program loans or perkins loans   months spent in deferment other than inschool deferment before 2013 use the pslf help tool to search for a qualifying employer and generate a form it has been updated to align with the waiver to qualify borrowers must already have direct loans or consolidate their federal debt into a new direct loan the consolidation step is critical borrowers can submit a combined pslfemployer certification form before consolidating but they must consolidate to be eligible for forgiveness log in to the federal student aid website to determine if you qualify for additional payments and learn more about the waiver if you’re hoping to get the waiver before it expires make sure to submit it by oct 31   interest rates on new federal student loans going up for 202223   do you need a grad degree to compete right now probably not   collegebound grads may share 40k in debt with their parents