Are you struggling to pay back your student loans? Are you wondering if there’s a way to get rid of them?
We’ve got some good news: if you’ve been struggling with student loan debt for 10 years and still can’t make ends meet, there might be a way for you to forgive your student loans.
The government offers income-driven repayment plans that can help you manage your payments. These plans are geared toward people who work in public service fields or who have low incomes and high debt. They offer different levels of forgiveness based on how much money they receive each month, with the highest level of forgiveness available after 20 years and a monthly payment of 10% or less of your discretionary income.
You can apply for an Income-Driven Repayment Plan by filling out an application form on the Department of Education’s website. You’ll need to provide your name and social security number; however, if you’re applying as part of a group, such as through our organization (Forgive Student Loans After 10 Years), then you’ll need to also provide us with contact information so we can keep track of all applications from our members and make sure we stay updated about any changes or
Forgive Student Loans After 10 Years
In order to have your student loan forgiven after a 10-year period, some of the requirements that need to be met are as follows:
- You must be working full-time for the government or an eligible non-for-profit in a certain field, like firefighting, teaching, government, nursing, public interest law, military, or religious work
- You need to have made payments for 10 years, totalling 120 payments for the full amount inside 15 days of the date the monthly payments goes out.
- You need to have a loan(s) in the federal direct loan program, although you can consolidate your federal loans as one payment as part of the PSLF.
However, some of the type of players that do not qualify for the PSLF include labour unions, partisan political organizations, and for-profit organizations, which includes for-profit government contractors.
student loan forgiveness after 20 years
Do student loans get forgiven after 25 years? It depends on what types of student loans you have. Student loan forgiveness after 20 years or after 25 years is an option if you have certain federal student loans including:
- Stafford loans
- Grad PLUS loans
- Consolidation loans
If you have qualifying loans, you must also sign up for an income-driven repayment plan. Depending on the specifics of your plan, your payment will be capped at a specific percentage of your income. Once you have made the required payments for either 20 or 25 years — depending, again, on which plan you choose — the remaining balance of your loans is forgiven.
Income Driven-Repayment Plans
Student loan forgiveness after 20 or 25 years is an option only if you choose an income-driven payment plan for your eligible federal loans.
There are four options for income-driven repayment that could potentially result in loan forgiveness after 20 years or after 25 years. These options include:
- Revised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE): This limits payments to 10% of discretionary income. Any remaining loan balance will be forgiven after 20 years if all loans were for undergraduate study or after 25 years if you took out any graduate school loans.
- Pay as You Earn (PAYE): This limits payments to 10% of your discretionary income but payments cannot exceed what you’d owe under the Standard Repayment Plan. Any remaining loan balance will be forgiven after 20 years.
- Income-Based Repayment (IBR): If you’re a new borrower after July 1, 2014, this caps payments at 10% of discretionary income and payments cannot exceed the amount due under the Standard Repayment Plan. If you borrowed before July 1, 2014, payments are limited to 15% of discretionary income with the same payment cap. 20 year student loan forgiveness is available if you were a new borrower after July 1, 2014; otherwise, your remaining balance will be forgiven after 25 years.
- Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR): This limits payments to the lesser of 20% of discretionary income or the amount you’d owe on a repayment plan with a fixed 12-year repayment period, adjusted based on income. Loan forgiveness is available after 25 years.
So what happens to student loans after 20 years or after 25 years? Any remaining loan balance that remains unpaid at the end of your repayment period will be forgiven and you will no longer have to repay it.
20 Year Student Loan Forgiveness Options
If you are interested in 20-year student loan forgiveness, you must choose one of the following repayment plans for your eligible federal student loans:
- Revised Pay As You Earn: This offers loan forgiveness after 20 years but only if all of your loans were for undergraduate study. During the 20 years when you’re paying loans, monthly payments will be capped at 10% of discretionary income.
- Pay As You Earn: This offers loan forgiveness after 20 years to all eligible borrowers. Your payment equals 10% of your discretionary income during the 20-year period but can’t be higher than what you’d owe under the standard repayment plan.
- Income-based repayment: This offers 20 year student loan forgiveness if you were a new borrower after July 1, 2014. If you meet this criterion, your payments will equal 10% of discretionary income with a maximum payment equal to the amount you’d owe under the standard repayment plan.