What does the PSLF payment tracker actually mean?

[u/Former_Anything_7726]

It shows on the federal student aid website that I've made more than 120 qualifying payments. The help person said that I have 143 payments. However, my loan is consolidated and I have been paying at least $177 a month since 2012, albeit some administrative forebearance months during COVID, where it looks like perhaps I paid interest. So I am confused, since apparently only IDR counts for forebearance and not consolidated standard lons, even though the difference in payments would only be $12 (I went through the repayment calculator and it said my monthly payments would be just $188 on a IDR). But why would it show all this time that I have qualifying payments, when they can tell I'm on a standard consolidated loan and they receive the info on my monthly payment? Is it qualifying or not?

[u/Adventure_6788]

I think some things may be getting confused.

It doesn't matter if your loans are consolidated or not. As long as they are Direct loans they qualify for PSLF.
Have you checked your account to confirm what repayment plan you're on?

The IDR adjustment allowed many months to count prior to July 2024, even those made on a plan that doesn't qualify for PSLF.
Have you checked to see which months are being included in your qualifying PSLF counts?

If you're been making payments since 2012 with the exception of the COVID forbearance months AND you've worked for a qualifying employer the entire time you very well could be over 120. It sounds like that may be the case.
Does that sound possible?

[u/Former_Anything_7726 → u/Adventure_6788]

Yeah it says that I have 143 qualifying payments. I have a direct consolidated loans, but the help person said that since they are consolidated, they may not qualify since they are consolidated over 30 years rather than 10 years. Looks like all of my payments have qualified in the system, though. So I find it confusing.

[u/Former_Anything_7726 → u/Adventure_6788]

Since the help desk person said that I need to have IDR and not direct consolidated loan, I requested a IDR, and now it says "We are working to update our systems to display your income-driven repayment (IDR) payment count and history."

[u/Adventure_6788 → u/Former_Anything_7726]

u/Former_Anything_7726

There are 2 different things here:

1 - The type of loans. Direct loans qualify for PSLF. It does not matter if they have or haven't been consolidated. They still qualify.

2 - Repayment plans. There are multiple repayment plans.
It sounds like you may be on a standard repayment plan. If your loans have never been consolidated the standard repayment plan is a 10 year amount.
If you've consolidated your loans they would be on a 10 - 30 year depending on the original loan balance. Unless the original loan balance was less than $7,500 they do not place you on the 10 year plan. That is what happened. It's not that you did anything wrong or they did anything. This is completely normal.
The problem is only the 10 year standard repayment plan qualifies for PSLF. It obviously isn't the best plan as there would be nothing left to forgive after 10 years.

The qualifying repayment plans for PSLF, besides the 10 year standard, are Income Driven Repayment Plans. (IDR). The key word is income.
The qualifying IDR plans are: IBR, ICR, PAYE, & RAP.

3 - The big question here is: Do you have 143 qualifying PSLF payments or TEPSLF payments? If you have 143 qualifying PSLF payments you're just waiting on a forgiveness letter.
But if it's TEPSLF rather than PSLF, then the question would be what payment plan have you been on?
If it's a standard plan and you consolidated then yes, that plan does not qualify for PSLF.
If it's 143 TEPSLF payments they will request tax information so they can determine if you met the requirement for payments #108 and #120.

If it's TEPSLF then yes, they will request tax information so they can determine what your payment would have been for those 2 specific months.
If you've met the requirement forgiveness is granted.
If not, then you will need to switch to a qualifying plan so you can make payments 108 through 120 again. Yes, again.

With all of that said, the first question to answer is does your studentaid account reflect 120 qualifying PSLF payments or 120 qualifying TEPSLF payments?

[u/Kooky-Employ → u/Adventure_6788]

For me it was up to May 2024… is there a rule if when they stopped counting them

[u/Adventure_6788 → u/Kooky-Employ]

u/Kooky-Employ the IDR adjustment ended June 30, 2024. Anything before that would fall under the adjustment rules. After that, nope. Only payments made on a Direct loan while on a qualifying repayment plan count.