People who qualify for The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program have the potential to have the balances on their student loans erased. Before this can happen people with student loans must make sure they meet the requirements for entering this program. The second thing they must do is be employed in a public service job.
The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program only applies toward certain types of loans. First of all, they must be federal student loans which the student procured from the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program of the United States government. Four types of these loans meet the qualifications for the program.
The first type of loan which qualifies is the Federal Direct Stafford/Ford Loan. This is a loan given to undergraduate students and graduate students and those in a Ph.D program. This loan affords its students the right to defer repayment of their loan until, generally, six months after they have graduated. The interest is subsidized by the Department of Education.
The second loan, Federal Direct Unsubsidized Stafford/Ford Loan, is a loan similar to the first one, but the interest is not subsidized by the Education Department. The student must make interest payments while in school or these can be deferred to a later date. The third loan to qualify, the Federal Direct PLUS Loan is a loan for graduate students who are participating in a Master’s or a Ph.D program. The fourth loan is the Federal Direct Consolidated Loan.
It is not just the type of loan that must meet certain conditions before they can be considered for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program; the individual person must also pass a test. In order for individuals to be accepted into this program they must not have defaulted on their loans and they have to have a job in the public service arena.
Some examples of the public service jobs in which former students need to be employed include all branches of the military; the National Guard applies here, too. All types of law enforcement positions qualify such as police officers and fire fighters. Some jobs in the healthcare industry such as nurses and nurse practitioners meet the requirements.
While former students are employed in their public service jobs they have to have made 120 payments on them. They must still be employed in the public service job when they apply for the loan forgiveness program. Similarly they will need to be working in the public service job after they have been accepted into the program and the balances of the loans are forgiven.
It may be the case that a student has other types of loans that do not fall under the Direct Loan program. These loans can qualify under the Federal Direct Consolidated Loan. For example, a nurse who is in an eligible profession for this program may have a nursing loan along with a Federal Family Education Loan. If the former nursing student consolidates these loans into the Federal Direct Consolidated Loan, he or she now qualifies his or her nursing loans for the forgiveness program.
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