There are great opportunities for Police sheriffs and Law Enforcement officers to get Student Loans Forgiveness. You can qualify for student loan forgiveness through a program.
How Do I Qualify to Receive a Student Loan forgiveness?
Law enforcement is one of the eligible jobs for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program. This program forgives the balance on your Direct Loans if you make 120 qualifying monthly repayments and work full time for a qualifying employer.
Qualification for the PSLF depends on your employer, not on what job you hold. PSLF is for you if you’re a full-time employee at any level of government, whether it be federal, state, or local.
It is because police and corrections officers automatically have the right to apply for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness. Additional criteria may be required to qualify a law enforcement officer:
- You can be a part-owner of a non-profit organization exempt from tax under Section 502(c)(3). The IRS does not allow employees working for partisan organizations or members of labor unions to apply, even though their employers are 501c(3).
- Even if your company is not a registered 501(c),(3) but still provides certain types of services that are qualified, it could still qualify.
- This forgiveness only applies to federal student loans. These procedures do not allow for the forgiveness of private student loans.
Law Enforcement Which Qualifies for Public Service Loan forgiveness
The following agencies and law enforcement departments of the government may be eligible for student loan forgiveness.
- Bureau of Indian Affairs Police
- Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
- Police stations in the City
- Police officers in universities and colleges
- Sheriffs’ offices by county
- Drug Enforcement Agency – DEA
- Federal Bureau of Investigations
- Federal Bureau of Prisons
- National Park Service Rangers and Police
- National Security Agency
- Naval Criminal Investigative Service
- State prison facilities, or corrections departments (DOC).
- Customs and Border Protection
- Immigration and Customs Enforcement ICE
- Marshals Service
- Secret Service
Step by step process to Forgiveness of Loans for Law Enforcement Officers
An employer must require you to work at least thirty hours per week. You may work multiple part-time jobs for qualified employers so long as they total at least 30, or more, per week.
To complete the process successfully
- After 120 qualifying payments, your federal loan balance can be forgiven
- Qualifying Payments are those that include the entire amount due but no later than 15 business days after the due date.
- Ineligible payments include payments made during grace, deduction, forbearance, and default periods.
- It doesn’t matter if the payments are consecutive
- You can combine your income-based repayment plan with a monthly payment reduction plan
- Convert ineligible loans and receive one monthly payment with a direct consolidation Loan
Consolidate your loans to be eligible
Student loan consolidation is where you consolidate all student loans into one loan. This loan should have a lower Interest Rate and be big enough to pay all the federal student loans. The large loan amount is repayable with monthly payments. The government will provide the loan. You cannot consolidate any private loans.
Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program is only for Direct Student Loans, Direct Consolidation Loans. Federal Direct PLUS loans can also be subsidized or unsubsidized.
Federal Family Education Loans – Perkins Loans Program and Federal Family Education Loans – are not eligible. However, they may become eligible if combined into Direct Consolidation Loans.
Federal consolidation takes out the old FFEL and replaces it with a federal direct consolidated Loan. Also, borrowers can now count the time before consolidation towards PSLF with a limited waiver from the Department of Education. This time was not considered before.
Recent changes made to the Department of Education enable borrowers now to count their time towards the required 10 Years of Service.
We are available to help you with your current loan situation. Call today.
Qualified payments refer to any payment that is made under the following payment plans:
- Repayments based on income
- Income-contingent repayment
- Earn to Pay
- Standard Repayment – If you continue on a Standard Repayment program for 10 years or more, your entire debt is forgiven. You might still wish to enroll in PSLF, and receive credit for these qualifying payments in case you change to a different plan.
- Federal Perkins Loan Cancellation. This option only applies to Perkins Loans.
Perkins Loan Cancellation
You may be able to get your federal Perkins Loan canceled if you have one. Not every police officer is eligible. To avail of this program, you must:
- If you are a sworn police officer or have principal responsibilities that are only related to the criminal justice process, you must be one
- Personnel with administrative duties in law enforcement do not qualify
- You must be employed by an agency or facility that receives public funding, either local, state, or national.
Federal Perkins Loan Cancellation offers 100% loan forgiveness to corrections officers and law enforcement personnel who work full-time. This includes service up to August 14, 2008, and beyond.
After five years, you can cancel as follows:
- Year one: 15% cancellation
- Year two: 15% cancellation
- Year three: 20% cancellation
- Year four: 20% cancellation
- Year five: 30% cancellation
Federal Perkins loans must be applied to the school that granted the loan. For more information on Perkins Loan cancellations, please contact your school or loan provider.
There are other options available for student loan repayment
What if I don’t meet the requirements for PSLF. You still have student loan debt and must repay them as quickly and efficiently as possible. There are many options for student loan debt relief.
- The standard payment plan first pays off your loan in 120 fixed monthly payments over ten years. This plan allows you to repay your loans as soon as they are forgiven. It is possible to lower your interest payments by following this plan. How do you make this work within your budget? If budgeting is not something you’ve ever thought about, it’s a good time to get started.
- These repayment plans have a 10-year payoff. They start with smaller monthly amounts that gradually increase in amount. The monthly payments are equal to the interest for that month and the final payment is no more than three times the initial payment. This will result in higher interest rates over 10 years. However, it is more affordable for someone just starting their career.
- If you don’t have the funds to pay the standard or the graduated plans, you can use the extended loan repayment plan to repay your loans over 25 years. You have the option of making monthly payments that are fixed or increasing over time. Extended repayment plans will cost you more interest because you are paying for a longer amount of time.
- Forbearance and deferment can be used to postpone payments for those who are financially strapped. Deferment is preferable as interest doesn’t accrue even though you aren’t paying. But not everyone qualifies. There are many situations that can allow you to apply for deferment. These include losing your job and receiving federal, state, or local assistance. If you aren’t eligible for deferment but your financial difficulties are temporary, you may be granted forbearance. The interest will still accrue. In both cases, you may see higher payments once they resume.
- An alternative way to lower your monthly expense is refinancing the student loans you have by getting a new private student loan to replace your current debt. If you plan to use PSLF to repay your student loans, refinancing them with a private lender is not an option. They are also ineligible for forgiveness.
We student loan forgiveness applications are here to help you get loan forgiveness. Contact us via phone call or submit the application form on this page now. One of our loan experts will contact you.
