The new federal administration has rapidly taken actions impacting public sector workers across the country in recent weeks, sometimes with little notice. Some ongoing developments may directly impact city workers who have outstanding student loans, including those participating in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program.

A few events are pointing to the possibility of major changes to the way that student loans are handled by the federal government, including: a federal court’s preliminary injunction against certain income-driven repayment (IDR) plans, the U.S. Department of Education’s removal of online applications for key IDR plans and loan consolidations, a congressional proposal to eliminate most IDR plans getting consideration in the budget debate, and continued interest by the new federal administration in dismantling the Department of Education and accessing confidential student loan data.

City workers with outstanding federal student loans are eligible for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which is authorized by Congress and intended to help workers who dedicate at least part of their careers to public service. To qualify, participants must (1) work and average of 30 hours/week for a local, state, tribal, or federal government employer; (2) make 120 qualifying payments on federal direct student loans under a qualified repayment plan. After public servants finish their qualifying payments, the borrower applies to have the remainder of the student loan debt forgiven. Functionally speaking, PSLF only works for borrowers on some kind of income-driven repayment plan, since a standard repayment plan would leave no debt to forgive.

In these uncertain times for student loan borrowers, especially for city workers participating in the PSLF program, we have come across some suggestions to help city workers prepare for possible upheavals in student loan repayments:

• Download your loan data now: Borrowers should log into their studentaid.gov account ASAP and screenshot or download their loan balance, repayment history, correspondence, and any other data relating to your loans and save them independently. If the Education Department is dismantled, borrowers will want to be able to verify that their information, including their outstanding debt and payment history, is correct.
• Get your PSLF records now: PSLF participants should also make sure to download or screenshot the record of their payment progress, so you don’t lose credit for PSLF eligible payments already made – especially if PSLF payments were made using one of the income-driven repayment plans that have now been called into question.