Reviewed program guide
Public Service Loan Forgiveness
A federal program that can forgive the remaining balance on Direct Loans after 120 qualifying monthly payments made while you work full time for government or qualifying nonprofit employers. You can apply on your own at no cost; the firm sells attorney-supervised help with the record work.
Public Service Loan Forgiveness is a federal program run by the U.S. Department of Education. If you work full time for a government office, a qualifying nonprofit, or another qualifying public-service employer, and you make 120 qualifying monthly payments on Direct Loans under an accepted repayment plan, the remaining balance on those loans may be forgiven. The 120 months do not have to be consecutive, and employment has to exist both when the last payment is made and when you apply. The rules were rewritten effective July 1, 2026, so a repayment plan or an employer situation that counted a few years ago can be treated differently today. You can apply on your own, for free. What we sell is attorney-supervised help assembling and checking the record.
Reading this guide does not decide eligibility. The free screening checks your answers against reviewed routing criteria.
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We are preparing a reviewed, captioned explainer for this program. The written guide below is available now.
At a glance
Overview
Public Service Loan Forgiveness is a federal program run by the U.S. Department of Education. If you work full time for a government office, a qualifying nonprofit, or another qualifying public-service employer, and you make 120 qualifying monthly payments on Direct Loans under an accepted repayment plan, the remaining balance on those loans may be forgiven. The 120 months do not have to be consecutive, and employment has to exist both when the last payment is made and when you apply. The rules were rewritten effective July 1, 2026, so a repayment plan or an employer situation that counted a few years ago can be treated differently today. You can apply on your own, for free. What we sell is attorney-supervised help assembling and checking the record.
Who it may help
A closer look may help if you work for a federal, state, local, or Tribal government office, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, a public school district, a public hospital system, the military, or a Tribal college. Part-time jobs with two or more qualifying employers can be added together toward the 30-hour-per-week full-time standard. California health-care workers are a distinct case: some professionals cannot lawfully be hired as direct employees of a hospital, and the current rule has a category for people employed through that kind of arrangement. Teachers, public defenders, prosecutors, and nonprofit staff often hold a mix of loan types, and only Direct Loans count here. Screening can organize preliminary facts and records, but screening cannot determine qualification or select a final path.
How it works
You certify employment on the federal PSLF application, and one form covers both employment certification and the final request. The Department and its servicer count your qualifying months from their own payment records, so you verify that count rather than supply it. Borrowers are encouraged to certify each year, though the rule only requires the request once you reach 120 months. If an employer has closed or will not sign, there is an alternative path: W-2s for every calendar year, or pay stubs for every month, showing both the employer's federal tax ID and the dates you worked. Any month you cannot document that way is not certified. We help gather and pressure-test that record before it goes in. Administrative support can help organize forms, records, and communications; it does not replace the decision-maker's review.
Documents and next steps
Useful records include your federal loan detail from your StudentAid.gov account, W-2s or pay stubs covering each employer and period, your employer's federal tax ID number, the name and contact details of the person authorized to certify your employment, your repayment plan history, and copies of any prior submissions or denial letters. If you were denied before, note the date on the notice: a request to reconsider runs on a short deadline measured from it. Signature format also matters, because the employer certification has to be handwritten, hand-drawn, or a scanned image of a signature, and a typed name is rejected. The next step is to compare the records with the cited official source and any current instructions issued by the responsible agency, court, creditor, or other decision-maker.
Read this carefully
Important considerations
Two things deserve attention before you file. First, consolidating older FFEL or Perkins loans is usually the only way to make them eligible, but months paid on those older loans generally do not carry over; consolidating Direct Loans into a new Direct Consolidation Loan does carry the credit you already earned, as a weighted average. Second, the regulation now in force lets the Department exclude an employer it finds has a substantial illegal purpose. A 2025 version of that rule was struck down by a federal court in June 2026, but the same language was re-issued in a separate rulemaking effective July 1, 2026 that has not been set aside. That question is unsettled and worth watching if you work for an advocacy or service nonprofit. Attorney judgment is separate from administrative help and is required for individualized legal strategy or advice.
Common questions
Frequently asked questions
These answers provide general information. Your facts and records determine what may apply.
Do months I spent in forbearance or deferment ever count toward the 120?
Some do. Under the current rules, months in certain statuses count if you were working full time for a qualifying employer, including cancer-treatment, economic-hardship, military-service and post-active-duty deferments and some administrative forbearances. For months that do not count, the Department runs a buyback process: there is no form, you request it through StudentAid.gov, and you pay at least what you would have paid on a qualifying repayment plan for those months. Two honest caveats. The Department's servicer states that buyback is open only once you already have 120 months of qualifying employment and only if buying the months back would complete your forgiveness, a condition that does not appear in the regulation itself. And processing times are not published, so no one can tell you reliably how long a buyback request takes.
Will consolidating my loans wipe out the payments I have already made?
It depends on what you consolidate. Under the current rule, when you consolidate Direct Loans into a new Direct Consolidation Loan, the qualifying payments you already made carry over as a weighted average, so you do not restart at zero. The real exposure is different: months you paid on FFEL, Perkins, or other non-Direct loans generally never earned credit in the first place, so consolidating brings those loans into the program going forward without recovering the past. That is why the timing of a consolidation matters, and why it is worth reviewing your full loan list, and any Perkins cancellation rights you would give up, before filing anything.
Can I do this myself without paying anyone?
Yes. PSLF is a free federal program, and the Department of Education's online help tool walks you through employer certification and the application at no cost. Nobody outside the Department decides your case, and hiring a law firm does not move you up a queue or make a federal decision come faster. What a firm can add is different work: building an employment and payment record that holds up on review, dealing with an employer that will not certify, sorting out which of your loans are actually eligible, responding to a denial inside the short reconsideration window, and advising on trade-offs such as consolidation or plan choice, which is attorney judgment rather than paperwork. Whether that is worth paying for is your decision to make.
Official sources
- Federal Student Aid, U.S. Department of Education (opens in a new window)
Retrieved Jul 24, 2026
- Federal Student Aid, U.S. Department of Education (opens in a new window)
Retrieved Jul 24, 2026
Important disclosure
This page provides general information, not a qualification or legal determination. Screening and services cannot guarantee approval, forgiveness, discharge, settlement, timing, or any particular result. The responsible agency, court, creditor, or other decision-maker applies the controlling requirements.
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