An important deadline has been extended for borrowers with older federal student loans who might be eligible to have them forgiven.

Borrowers with Federal Family Education Loans (FFEL) not held by the federal government now have until June 30, 2024, to consolidate their student debt into federal loans in order to take advantage of a program that gives borrowers extra credit toward having forgiveness. Borrowers previously faced a 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:deadline of April 30 to consolidate those loans to gain eligibility for a one-time account adjustment scheduled to take effect in September.

The adjustment will change the payment counts for borrowers to have their loans forgiven under income-driven repayment plans, which forgive the remaining balances of borrowers after they make regular payments for 20 or 25 years. The adjustment will also apply to people eligible for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which forgives the loans of people who have worked for government or nonprofit organizations for 10 years.

The payment adjustment will add credit for payments that previously didn’t count, including time spent in deferment for military service, economic hardship, or for payments made on repayment plans that were previously ineligible among other circumstances. The adjustment is also meant to correct for past errors by the companies that administ♛er student loans on behalf of the government, and has resulted in $49.2 billion in for𝓀giveness for more than 996,000 borrowers so far, the department said.

Crucially, the adjustment applies to borr🎶owers whether or not they a😼re currently enrolled in an income-driven repayment plan, meaning that some people who have had student loans for a long time could get their loans canceled even if they previously weren’t on track for forgiveness. 

“FFEL borrowers should consolidate as soon as possible in order to receive this benefit that has already provided forgiveness t🦂o nearly 1 million borrowers,” U.S. Under Secretary of Education James Kvaal said in a press release.

FFEL loans are a type of federal student loan, no longer given out, which can be held either by the government or by a private lender. Privately held loans must be combined into federal loans to qualify for the payment count adjustment.