Student loan forgiveness opportunity for state employees — Deadline Oct. 31

The Federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program can help eligible State of North Carolina employees, including UNC Charlotte employees, clear their student loan balances.

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program forgives the remaining balance on federal direct student loans for certain public service employees after a total of 120 months of qualifying payments.

State government is a qualifying employer. Other types of qualifying public service include work for other types of government, 501(c)(3) organizations and some nonprofits.

The temporary PSLF waiver makes it possible for millions of public service workers to get credit for past periods of repayment that would otherwise not qualify — reducing or potentially eliminating student loan debt. For example, under the waiver:

• Past periods of repayment will now count whether or not you made a payment, made that payment on time, for the full amount due or on a qualifying repayment plan
• Borrowers with a FFEL Program loan, Perkins Loan or certain other federal student loans can benefit by consolidating their loans into a Direct Consolidation Loan and receive credit for periods of repayment pre-consolidation
• You are eligible for forgiveness even if you are not employed by a qualifying employer at the time of application
• The deadline to take advantage of this opportunity is Monday, Oct. 31, 2022.

To learn more:

• Visit studentaid.gov/pslf/, studentaid.gov/pslfwaiver or ncdoj.gov/PSLF.
• Contact your student loan servicer and let them know that you are interested in PSLF and the waiver. Your loan servicer should be able to assist you.

It is important to act quickly as consolidation could take one to two months to complete.