Federal Student Aid to Streamline Loan Servicing

After six tumultuous months since the end of emergency student loan forbearance, the office of Federal Student Aid is trying something new and—in some cases—taking the reins. Throughout the Biden Administration, the Department of Education has worked with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to hold student loan servicers accountable. Unwilling to face the scrutiny, a number abandoned their federal student loan profiles, or outsourced servicing to other companies. Now, with PSLF servicer MOHELA facing public outcry for its poor servicing record, FSA is taking a more active role.

Changes for All Borrowers, Especially for PSLF

Federal Student Aid is streamlining the borrower web experience. Regardless of what type of federal loans you hold, or who your servicer is, you’ll be transitioned to a new servicing website with new login credentials. Your servicer will remain the same, but by June 2024, all federal servicer websites will transition from “.com” domains to “.gov” and will include FSA branding. Later this year, you will also be able to access your student loans across platforms all by using your FSA ID, rather than having separate credentials for each website.

For borrowers pursuing Public Service Loan Forgiveness, some of this is old news, but there’s more to the story. Beginning on May 1, 2024, MOHELA will no longer manage the PSLF or TEACH Grant programs, and you will no longer be able to access your PSLF progress, certified employment, or payment counts on MOHELA’s borrower portal. Instead, all of that information will be managed and documented directly through FSA and you will track your progress on studentaid.gov. MOHELA will continue to collect and process payments, but everything related to forgiveness will be managed directly by FSA. 

Because of this transition, there will be a delay processing PSLF applications and borrowers between May 1–July 1, 2024. Throughout this transition, borrowers will also not be able to access any of their PSLF records on either studentaid.gov or MOHELA’s website. FSA recommends that you “save screenshots and correspondence for your personal records…by April 30, 2024.” Payments are still due throughout this transition, however, even if you are expecting to meet your 120 qualifying payments. If that is the case, you should continue making payments, and your servicer will refund you for any above and beyond your 120 QPs as soon as FSA processes your PSLF form.