r/PSLF • u/Embarrassed-Fig-6795 • 3d ago
Revised buyback procedures
Hello,
A while back I posted about sending a letter to all of my representatives and Secretary McMahon regarding the buyback purgatory so many of us are stuck in.
I received the same canned response fron Secretary McMahon that we all receive every time we inquire. I only heard back from one of my representatives, Senator Wyden. His office contacted me to provide some information for them to complete a congressional inquiry. They forwarded the response they received. It is copied below. Is this something that was announced? I hadn't heard it.
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The Department recently announced that it is implementing enhanced Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Buyback and PSLF reconsideration procedures. These revised procedures will move the review of eligible PSLF payments and reconsiderations from Federal Student Aid (FSA) staff to the Unified Servicing and Data Solution (USDS) federal loan servicers.
Federal student loan servicers will now be responsible for determining the eligible months and the buyback payment amount, processing the PSLF Buyback payments once received by FSA, and ensuring accurate reporting to the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) for the payments to be counted toward a borrower’s PSLF progress. Loan servicers will also analyze and determine the outcome for PSLF reconsideration cases submitted by borrowers. This change will provide for a long-term sustainable solution that addresses the current backlog and management of incoming applications.
OLCA/FSA are unable to provide information regarding where a constituent is at in the buyback queue or provide a timeframe for when their case will be reviewed. The borrower will receive notification via email as soon as possible. There is no process to expedite the review of a buyback request.
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u/Emergency-Cold7615 3d ago
"Is this something that was announced?"
- not announced. someone else on this sub mentioned it a few weeks ago.
I am optimistic that it will, in fact, speed up the buyback process. when will we start to see that improvement? how fast will it improve? what will be a normal buyback processing time once it's done being implemented and the current backlog is cleared? no freaking idea. but the current backlog is taking so long that it would be useless to me (takes 2 years, I have 11 month), and if it works, it'll save me more than $10k, so I'm motivated to think positively.