The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program encourages graduates to work in public service jobs by forgiving federal student loan balances for borrowers who have made 10 years of payments while in certain public service jobs. In 2018, after the Department of Education forgave few loans, Congress temporarily expanded the program to include more borrowers.
According to a report by the Government Accountability Office, the Department of Education continues to reject requests for loan forgiveness under the program–rejecting 99% of the requests. From May 2018 to May 2019, the Department processed roughly 54,000 requests and approved just 661. It spent only $27 million of the $700 million allocated by Congress.
The GAO report, as well as a short fact sheet, is here.
