Student Loan Repayment And Forgiveness

While student debt cancellation is on hold due to the recent Supreme Court decision, there are still resources, options, and timelines to be aware of.

The pandemic payment pause for student loans ends on August 31st, 2023. The Department of Education is working with borrowers to establish income-driven repayment plans that will ease the shock of the end of the payment pause. 

There is a hard deadline to get previously-ineligible loan payments credited to your Public Service Loan Forgiveness application. The deadline to get those payments counted (for ANY federal loan) is December 31st, 2023. NOW IS THE TIME to be sure that you are taking advantage of all debt relief options.

AFT is continuing our partnership with Summer, and running frequent debt clinics. If you have not participated in one, sign up to make sure that you are getting the best payment terms possible. Even if you are not PSLF-eligible, the debt clinics will help you navigate getting a good payment plan established. You can sign up for a debt clinic here. 

In 2022, AFT Washington brought a bill that, among other things, established a 3.35 hour multiplier for adjunct faculty, to give them a concrete number of hours for PSLF application. The multiplier is in recognition of work done outside the classroom, and is calculated by multiplying the number of in-class instruction hours by 3.35.

The federal government has since passed the same multiplier, so if you are an adjunct instructor who teaches in a state that did not previously have a multiplier, you can now use that 3.35 hour multiplier for all your instruction time.