Information pertaining to borrower defense and student loan forgiveness

1. Borrower Defense & Loan
Forgiveness
4/12/2021

2. Biden (Loan Forgiveness Updates)
• Biden has recommended canceling federal student debt in the following
instances:
• If you attended a public college or university. Attendees of private
historically Black college and universities and additional minority-serving
institutions would also be eligible.
• If you used the loans for undergraduate tuition. Graduate student debt
would not be canceled under Biden’s proposal.
• If you earn less than $125,000. Biden’s plan references a phase-out of
this benefit but does not offer further details.
• These proposals would not affect borrowers with private student loans, but
Biden does support making discharge of private student debt in
bankruptcy easier.
• Any broad student debt cancellation plan is likely to face extensive
negotiation and headwinds in Congress.

3. Studentaid.gov Website
• For existing borrowers, I highly encourage you to login into
• https://studentaid.gov/. Make sure that your information is up to
date which includes your email address, phone number, and mailing
address so that you don’t miss out on important updates.

4. Loan Forgiveness vs. Loan Discharge
Differences Between Forgiveness, Cancellation, and
Discharge
• The terms forgiveness, cancellation, and discharge mean nearly
the same thing, but they’re used in different ways. If you’re no
longer required to make payments on your loans due to your
job, this is generally called forgiveness or cancellation. If you’re
no longer required to make payments on your loans due to
other circumstances, such as a total and permanent disability or
the closure of the school where you received your loans, this is
generally called discharge.

5. Coronavirus and Forbearance Info for
Students, Borrowers, and Parents
• https://studentaid.gov/announcements-events/coronavirus

6. What Did I Do to Get My Loans Discharged?
• Absolutely Nothing Yall! I checked my emails as I normally do and
received the discharge letter from the Department of Federal Student
Aid. Yall I was literally blown away when I got this. I have attended 3
colleges in total:
• Westwood-no longer exist (closed)
• Kaplan University
• Strayer University- currently enrolled

7. Borrower Defense
• You may be eligible for discharge of your federal
student loans based on borrower defense to repayment
if you took out the loans to attend a school and the
school did something or failed to do something related
to your loan or to the educational services that the loan
was intended to pay for. The specific requirements to
qualify for a borrower defense to repayment discharge
vary depending on when you received your loan.

8. Borrower Defense Continued…..
• If you believe that your school has misled you, you can visit the
website below to complete the Borrower Defense Application.
• https://studentaid.gov/borrower-defense/

9. Borrower Defense Hotline
• If you would like to speak with a representative in regards to your
student loans, or to get more information on borrower defense, you
can call the number listed below:
• Borrower Defense Hot Line: 1-855-279-6207

10. My Federal Student Aid Email
• Below is the link to the email I received from The Department of
Federal Student Aid. You can view it as a webpage at the link below:
• https://mirror.mail.studentaid.gov/nl/jsp/m.jsp?c=%40lkZWIVnYo445
twHCbk9G5OpsKLZTDgdHVuQqPgxyjSE%3D

11. How to Get Your Student Loans Cancelled
• If you’re not one of the 72,000 student loan borrowers but you shared a
similar experience with your college or university, you may be able to get
your federal student loans cancelled under borrower defense to student
loan repayment forgiveness. Here’s how:
1.Complete the borrower defense to repayment application.
2.Prove monetary harm. Borrowing a student loan to attend the program, by
itself, is insufficient to prove monetary harm. The U.S. Department of
Education will compare earnings of prior graduates from your academic
program to the earnings of graduates of comparable programs to make a
determination of monetary harm.
3.Provide any supporting documentation.
4.Sign the certification

12. Borrower Defense Application Approved
• If you qualify for forgiveness, cancellation, or discharge of the
full amount of your loan, you are no longer obligated to make
loan payments. If you qualify for forgiveness, cancellation, or
discharge of only a portion of your loan, you are responsible for
repaying the remaining balance. ( This will take effect within 180
days)
• If you qualify for certain types of loan discharge, you may also
receive a refund of some or all of the payments you made on
the loan, and any adverse information related to your
delinquency or default on the loan may be deleted from your
credit record. If the loan was in default, the discharge may
erase the default status. If you have no other defaulted loans,

13. Borrower Defense Application Denied
• My Application Was Denied
• If your application was denied, you’ll remain responsible for
repaying your loan according to the terms of the promissory note
that you signed. Talk to your loan servicer about repayment
options if you have a Direct Loan or FFEL Program loan. Check
out repayment options.
• If your loan is in default, visit Getting Out of Default to find out
how to begin repaying your loan and your options for getting out
of default.
• If you believe that your application was denied in error, contact
your loan servicer for more information.

14. If You are in Default
• The Department of Education previously stopped the collection
of defaulted federally held student loans, including garnishment
of wages and the offset of tax refunds and Social Security
benefits, through September 30, 2021.

15. 10+ Student Loan Forgiveness Programs
That Discharge Loans
• https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/loans/student-loans/student-
loan-forgiveness

16. Important Information
• Interest and monthly payments on federally held loans are suspended through
September 30, 2021.
• You do not need to contact your student loan servicer or take any action on your
federally held student loans.
• Make sure your servicer has up-to-date contact information and check your mail
or email so you can receive any updates or information about your loans.
• Suspended payments through September 30, 2021 will count towards any
student loan forgiveness program, as long as all other requirements of the loan
forgiveness program are met.
• The Department of Education has stopped the collection of defaulted Direct and
FFEL federal student loans.
• The Department of Education has expanded the 0% interest rate to defaulted
FFEL loans and made it retroactive March 13, 2020.

17. Questions?
• If you have questions pertaining to loan discharge, or need guidance
to filling out the borrower defense application, please email me at
shalonda.r.lucas@wellsfargo.com or Shalonda.lucas@hotmail.com.
• I will answer my emails as I receive them. Feel free to leave contact
numbers as well and I can walk you through the process too.