Press Release
For Immediate Release
April 5, 2024
Media Contact: media@mohela.com
MOHELA Announces Updates from U.S. Department of Education to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) and TEACH Grant Programs
St. Louis, MO - April 5, 2024 - MOHELA, a governmental non-profit organization dedicated to helping the student loan borrowers it
serves, is announcing changes being made to the servicing it currently performs for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program
and the Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grant Program. Changes are being made by the U.S.
Department of Education, Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) under its "Next Generation of Federal Student Loan Servicing" vision
announced in May 2022.
"As a federal contractor for the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Federal Student Aid, MOHELA will be supporting the government
on its planned transition of servicing of the PSLF Program to StudentAid.gov," said a MOHELA spokesperson. "The decision
to transition PSLF servicing to FSA was a years-long strategy first announced by the Department back in 2022, prior to MOHELA becoming
the interim PSLF servicer, with FSA's long-term goal of a transition always set to take place around this time. During MOHELA's time as
the interim PSLF servicer, MOHELA processed nearly $50 billion in PSLF forgiveness for nearly 700,000 borrowers at the direction of
FSA - a record-high for the program. We remain committed to supporting FSA borrowers during this transition and beyond."
As part of its long-term vision for a new online environment for borrowers, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) will begin transitioning
the servicing of the PSLF Program and the TEACH Grant Program from its sole interim PSLF servicer, MOHELA, to ED via StudentAid.gov
beginning May 1, 2024. Any borrowers who are already working toward or are interested in PSLF, or are a TEACH Grant recipient, will
work directly with ED. The customer's federal student loans will remain with a federal contractor for non-specialty servicing activities.
Borrowers seeking more information from ED about the transition can visit
StudentAid.gov/streamlining.
Beginning July 2022, only 20 months ago, MOHELA began its work as the interim PSLF servicer on behalf of the government. During the
history of the program, approximately 857,000 borrowers have received PSLF forgiveness. Of those who received PSLF forgiveness under
the program, MOHELA processed nearly $50 billion in PSLF forgiveness for nearly 700,000 (80%) borrowers at the direction of FSA - the
highest number of forgiveness processed in the history of the program. In contrast, directly prior to MOHELA becoming the sole PSLF
servicer, only about 165,000 borrowers had received $10.5 billion in loan forgiveness during the previous five-year period from 2017
through June 2022.
*MOHELA does not have authority to process loan forgiveness for eligible borrowers until authorization is provided by FSA; the final
decision to discharge loans is made by FSA as the owner of the loan, not MOHELA. Additionally, PSLF counters of eligible payments and
PSLF forgiveness are processed from data contained in files from FSA.
Below is a timeline of MOHELA's work to support the federal government as its interim PSLF servicer.