System Office employees with federal student loans may benefit from recent temporary changes to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. On October 6, 2021, the U.S. Department of Education announced changes to the PSLF program rules for a limited time because of the COVID-19 national emergency. These changes are intended to help PSLF reach a broader audience of student loan borrowers working for qualified employers. If you have Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program loans (Stafford and certain PLUS loans) or Perkins loans, regardless of who originated the loans, you may qualify for PSLF if you consolidate your loans into the Federal Direct Loan Program and submit a PSLF Form to FedLoan Servicing on or before October 31, 2022.
As a state government entity, UNC System Office is a qualifying employer; therefore, time that you have worked for the System Office – or the UNC System – may count towards the repayment period required for loan forgiveness. More information is available on the CFNC website at https://www.cfnc.org/media/1ubfkpmc/pslf-temporary-waiver-information.pdf and the US Department of Education website at https://studentaid.gov/announcements-events/pslf-limited-waiver.