Student Loan Forgiveness Updates: New Changes Coming in 2022 for Public Service Borrowers -

"Borrowers on track for Public Service Loan Forgiveness, a federal student loan forgiveness program for people devoted to careers in nonprofit and public organizations, will continue to see significant changes this year."

Why this is important: Federal student loan repayments for all borrowers -- regardless of whether they experienced a loss of employment -- were paused during the pandemic, and the Biden administration recently extended the pause in payments until May 1, 2022. However, as this article spotlights, many feel that what the program needs are more fundamental reforms. The loan program has proven to be complicated for borrowers to navigate, and several large student loan servicers have left the program, evidencing that lenders are not happy either. Many are concerned that even borrowers who historically made their timely monthly student loan payments may have difficultly transitioning back into that practice following the pause in payments, and a borrower’s default on his or her federal student loan payment may quickly result in garnishment of wages, loss of tax refunds and higher fees. Accordingly, this article suggests that perhaps this additional 90-day “pause” is best spent by the Biden administration taking a serious look at how the program itself can be restructured to make improvements to benefit both borrowers and lenders.