{"id":11498,"date":"2025-03-10T21:51:11","date_gmt":"2025-03-10T21:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/?p=11498"},"modified":"2025-03-10T21:51:11","modified_gmt":"2025-03-10T21:51:11","slug":"what-student-loan-borrowers-should-know-as-trump-targets-pslf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/?p=11498","title":{"rendered":"What student loan borrowers should know as Trump targets PSLF"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"RegularArticle-ArticleBody-5\" data-module=\"ArticleBody\" data-test=\"articleBody-2\" data-analytics=\"RegularArticle-articleBody-5-2\"><span class=\"HighlightShare-hidden\" style=\"top:0;left:0\"><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"InlineImage-imageEmbed\" id=\"ArticleBody-InlineImage-108113524\" data-test=\"InlineImage\">\n<div class=\"InlineImage-wrapper\">\n<div>\n<p>Apu Gomes | Afp | Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"group\">\n<p>President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that aims to limit eligibility for a popular student loan forgiveness program.<\/p>\n<p>According to Trump&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/presidential-actions\/2025\/03\/restoring-public-service-loan-forgiveness\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">executive order<\/a>, borrowers employed by organizations that do work involving &#8220;illegal immigration, human smuggling, child trafficking, pervasive damage to public property and disruption of the public order&#8221; will &#8220;not be eligible for public service loan forgiveness.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which President George W. Bush signed into law in 2007, allows many not-for-profit and government employees to have their federal student loans canceled after 10 years of payments.<\/p>\n<p><strong>More from Personal Finance:<\/strong><br \/>DOGE layoffs may &#8216;overwhelm&#8217; unemployment system<br \/>Education Department cuts leave student loan borrowers in the dark<br \/>Congress&#8217; proposed Medicaid cuts may impact economy<\/p>\n<p>The order says that PSLF &#8220;has misdirected tax dollars into activist organizations that not only fail to serve the public interest, but actually harm our national security and American values.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Consumer advocates say that is not accurate, and were quick to condemn Trump&#8217;s move, accusing the president of depriving debt forgiveness to those who work in fields he does not approve of.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The PSLF program, which was created by Congress almost 20 years ago, does not permit the administration to pick and choose which non-profits should qualify,&#8221; said Jessica Thompson, senior vice president of The Institute for College Access &amp; Success.<\/p>\n<p>The White House did not immediately respond to a request from CNBC for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s what borrowers in the program need to know.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2 class=\"ArticleBody-subtitle\"><a id=\"headline0\"><\/a>Unclear which organizations could be excluded<\/h2>\n<div class=\"group\">\n<p>For now, the language in the president&#8217;s order was fairly vague. As a result, it remains unclear exactly which organizations will no longer be considered a qualifying employer under PSLF, experts said.<\/p>\n<p>The Trump administration might try &#8220;to exclude jobs that they deem objectionable,&#8221; said higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"group\">\n<p>What might that mean?<\/p>\n<p>In his first few weeks in office, Trump&#8217;s executive orders have targeted immigrants, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/nbc-out\/out-politics-and-policy\/trump-policies-transgender-people-rcna190424\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">transgender and nonbinary people<\/a> and those who work to increase diversity across the private and public sector. Many nonprofits work in these spaces, providing legal support or doing advocacy and education work.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Borrowers that work for those organizations are concerned,&#8221; said Betsy Mayotte, president of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/freestudentloanadvice.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Institute of Student Loan Advisors<\/a>, a nonprofit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2 class=\"ArticleBody-subtitle\"><a id=\"headline1\"><\/a>Changes could take &#8216;a year or more&#8217;<\/h2>\n<div class=\"group\">\n<p>Borrowers in the PSLF program won&#8217;t see an immediate effect. Trump&#8217;s order requested an update to the regulations regarding the program, she said: &#8220;That process can take a year or more.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I also suspect that this will be challenged in court,&#8221; Mayotte said. &#8220;The bottom line is that <a href=\"https:\/\/studentaid.gov\/help-center\/answers\/article\/what-not-for-profits-eligible-employers-for-pslf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">501(c)(3)s<\/a> are eligible for PSLF under the law.\u00a0An EO can&#8217;t change.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Changes also can&#8217;t be retroactive, she said. That means that if you are currently working for or previously worked for an organization that the Trump administration later excludes from the program, you&#8217;ll still get credit for that time, at least up until the changes go into effect.<\/p>\n<p>For now, those pursuing PSLF should print out a copy of their payment history on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/studentaid.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">StudentAid.gov<\/a>. Keep a record of the number of qualifying payments you&#8217;ve made so far.<\/p>\n<p>With the PSLF help tool, borrowers can search for a list of qualifying employers and access\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/studentaid.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/public-service-application-for-forgiveness.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the employer certification form<\/a>. Try to fill out this form at least once a year, experts say.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2025\/03\/10\/what-student-loan-borrowers-should-know-as-trump-targets-pslf.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Apu Gomes | Afp | Getty Images President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that aims to limit eligibility for a popular student loan forgiveness program. According to Trump&#8217;s executive order, borrowers employed by organizations that do work involving &#8220;illegal immigration, human smuggling, child trafficking, pervasive damage to public property and disruption of the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11499,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[196],"tags":[378,240,4100,308,618,563],"class_list":{"0":"post-11498","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-finance-news","8":"tag-borrowers","9":"tag-loan","10":"tag-pslf","11":"tag-student","12":"tag-targets","13":"tag-trump"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}