Student-loan borrowers in public service are facing setbacks with debt relief

Student-loan borrowers are waiting for their final payments toward the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program to be processed. Douglas Rissing/Getty Images Student-loan borrowers are facing delays in a major forgiveness program.Borrowers pursuing the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program have reported delays in seeing payments made over the past few months count toward their progress. PSLF forgives student debt for government and nonprofit workers after 10 years of qualifying payments,Affected borrowers said they made their 120th payment and are waiting for their relief to be processed. A notice one borrower received from Federal Student Aid, reviewed by Business Insider, said that payment counts on the dashboard "have been temporarily paused due to data issues causing count fluctuations.""Payment counts are currently static, and updates or correspondence related to these counts will resume once the issues are resolved," the notice said.An Education Department spokesperson did not respond to questions about the accuracy of the notice. The spokesperson previously said that the department "remains committed to ensuring that every qualifying payment is properly credited to a borrower's account."Borrowers can request a forbearance if they do not want to continue making payments, though interest will still accrue.In addition to delayed payment counts, there's a continued backlog of applications for the PSLF Buyback program. This allows borrowers to "buy back" any months spent in deferement or forbearance, if those months would put them at the relief threshold. According to the Education Department's latest status report, there were 88,000 pending Buyback applications as of April 30, 2026.The department wrote in the report that some borrowers have submitted multiple Buyback requests, "which inflates the number of pending requests."Beyond PSLF, many borrowers have struggled to navigate President Donald Trump's repayment overhaul, which took effect July 1. Borrowers have received incorrect billing statements and erroneous notices saying their accounts were delinquent. Some borrowers also had some of their qualifying payments toward PSLF removed, which the Education Department attributed to Biden-era coding errors. The ongoing glitches and confusion have prompted nearly 100 organizations to call on lawmakers for "emergency" oversight to ensure borrowers are not harmed as the repayment changes take effect."The federal student loan system is undergoing several drastic changes all at once," the groups said.Have a story to share about student loans? Contact this reporter at asheffey@businessinsider.com. Read next Ayelet Sheffey is a senior reporter at Business Insider covering education and student loans. She has appeared on shows including C-SPAN, CBS News, NPR, and SiriusXM to discuss her student-loan coverage, including her investigation on private student-loan lending.She graduated from American University in 2020 with a bachelor's degree in journalism. You can reach her via email at asheffey@businessinsider.com or message her securely on Signal at asheffey.97. You can also find her on LinkedIn, and on Reddit at the username u/higheredjourno. Student Debt Student Loans