Student Loan Forgiveness Is Back As Education Department Resumes Processing

ByAdam S. Minsky,

Senior Contributor.

The Department of Education appears to have resumed processing student loan forgiveness for borrowers in income-driven repayment plans, following a brief hiatus due to the government shutdown. Borrowers on Reddit have reported receiving the “golden letter” from the department on Tuesday indicating that their student loans have been approved for discharge, and practitioners have corroborated these accounts.

Student loan forgiveness processing has been a rollercoaster for borrowers. The Trump administration had suspended most, if not all, IDR loan forgiveness processing for most of this year. The Education Department then resumed processing briefly earlier this fall after a national teachers union filed a lawsuit challenging the processing suspension. But further processing was subsequently halted due to the historic government shutdown, even as the department entered into a court-approved settlement agreement requiring that discharges be timely processed for qualifying borrowers across several IDR plans.

Here are the latest developments on IDR student loan forgiveness, and what they mean for borrowers.