Student Loan Forgiveness Payment Count Temporarily Halted By Department Of Education

Some student loan borrowers are no longer able to access information regarding their progress. The Department of Education has temporarily halted payment counts for Income-Driven Repayment and Public Service Loan Forgiveness plans. The news comes as major changes are being made to loan programs by the Trump administration, including recent restrictions added to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

Why can I no longer access my payment count?

Payments counts on StudentAid.gov were removed for those who are enrolled in Public Service Loan Forgiveness and Income-Driven Repayment plans. The website had previously been set up under the Biden administration, to allow borrowers to monitor their progress.

“Federal Student Aid has temporarily removed the forgiveness payment counts from StudentAid.gov for Public Service Loan Forgiveness and Income-Driven Repayment,” an automated announcement on MOHELA’s main customer service phone line for Department of Education accounts indicates, according to Forbes. “Unfortunately, our representatives do not have any additional information related to your forgiveness counts. Please continue to visit StudentAid.gov for updates.”

It is unclear why borrowers can no longer access their progress. However, it isn’t the first time information was removed from the website. The IDR tracker on StudentAid.gov was previously removed in the spring after the Department of Education said it was needed in order to correct inaccuracies.

Senator Elizabeth Warren shared that Education Secretary Linda McMahon had agreed to restore the service. The platform remains to be updated with borrowers still unable to access their information.

“Secretary McMahon stated that she intends to soon restore the income-driven repayment (IDR) payment count tracker to Studentaid.gov, allowing borrowers to track their progress towards receiving debt relief, after taking down the tracker earlier in the Trump administration,” Warren said in June.

Student loan forgiveness plans are currently on pause

In February, loan forgiveness under the previously implemented IDR plans—SAVE, PAYE and ICR—were paused.

“Forgiveness as a feature of the SAVE, PAYE, and ICR Plans is currently paused, because those plans were not created by Congress,” the Department of Education said in April.

It noted that student loan forgiveness under the IBR plan remains available: “ED can and will still process loan forgiveness for the IBR Plan, which was separately enacted by Congress. Payments on PAYE, SAVE, and ICR are counted toward IBR Plan forgiveness if the borrower enrolls in IBR,” the department added.