Student loan forgiveness in 2026: what’s available and what to do

Student loan forgiveness in 2026 is not one program. It is a patchwork of more than a dozen separate discharge, cancellation and forgiveness pathways, each with its own eligibility test, its own list of covered loan types and its own paperwork. A borrower with a Direct Loan has options a borrower holding an old Perkins Loan does not, and a parent who borrowed through PLUS sits in a different category again. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act made significant changes to federal student aid programs, and the Education Department’s Federal Student Aid office says its forgiveness and discharge guidance has been updated to reflect them. Borrowers should still confirm anything program-specific with a loan servicer before making a decision.

Most relief falls into three broad buckets. There is forgiveness tied to the job a borrower holds, including Public Service Loan Forgiveness and Teacher Loan Forgiveness. There is discharge tied to a personal circumstance, such as total and permanent disability, death or bankruptcy. And there is discharge tied to something the school did — closing mid-program, falsely certifying a student's eligibility to borrow, failing to return loan money after a withdrawal, or misleading students about what they were buying. Parent PLUS borrowers have a narrower menu, plus one hard date worth marking. Forgiveness after 25 years on a Direct Consolidation Loan runs through the Income-Contingent Repayment Plan, and that plan is being eliminated by July 1, 2028 at the latest.

Most of this does not happen automatically. Borrowers generally have to apply, document their circumstances and, depending on the discharge type, keep making payments while the application is pending.

Approval can bring a refund of past payments and the removal of adverse credit information tied to the loan. A denial puts the borrower back on the original repayment schedule, with the servicer as the first call about other options. What follows is a guide to each forgiveness and discharge category available in 2026, what each one requires and what to do next.

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Public Service Loan Forgiveness cancels the remaining balance on a Direct Loan once a borrower has made 120 qualifying monthly payments — 10 years’ worth — while employed full time by an eligible organization. Payments under the new Tiered Standard Plan do not count toward the 120. The forgiven amount is not treated as taxable income at the federal level.

The employer test is what separates PSLF from every other federal relief program. Work for federal, state, local or tribal government qualifies, and so does military service and AmeriCorps. Qualifying not-for-profit organizations count, along with jobs in childcare, early childhood education, and public or not-for-profit education. Job title does not matter. The tax status and function of the employer does.

Loan type is the second gate. Only Direct Loans qualify on their own. Borrowers holding FFEL Program loans or Perkins Loans have to fold those balances into the Direct Loan Program first, and until that happens, nothing paid on the older loans counts toward the 120. Anyone unsure which program their debt sits under should pull that detail from their servicer before assuming 10 years of public-sector work is building toward anything.

The payments do not have to be consecutive. A borrower can leave qualifying employment, spend time somewhere that does not qualify and resume the count later, though the months outside eligible work add nothing. That is the argument for certifying employment periodically instead of reconstructing a decade of job history at the end. Filing certification after each job change, and keeping copies, gives a borrower a contemporaneous record to argue from if a servicer’s payment tally comes back lower than expected.

Teachers face one extra restriction. The same stretch of classroom service cannot generate credit toward both PSLF and Teacher Loan Forgiveness, so a public school teacher has to decide which program a given period feeds.

Borrowers close to the threshold should request a written payment count before leaving a qualifying employer. Correcting a miscount is harder once the public service job is gone.

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Income-driven repayment discharge cancels whatever balance remains after a borrower has made qualifying payments for 20 to 30 years, depending on the plan. There is no employer test and no public service requirement. The clock runs on time spent in repayment under a plan that sets the monthly bill from income and family size rather than from the size of the debt. The rules changed for new borrowing on July 1, 2026. A student borrower who receives any loan first disbursed on or after that date must repay all eligible Direct Loans, including older ones, under either the new Repayment Assistance Plan or the Tiered Standard Plan.

That calculation can produce a payment smaller than the interest accruing each month, which means a balance can climb even when every payment lands on time. The tradeoff is built into the design: a lower payment now, a longer stretch before anything is canceled.

How long that stretch runs depends on the plan. Under the Income-Based Repayment Plan, it is 20 years for borrowers who first borrowed on or after July 1, 2014, and 25 years for earlier borrowers. The new Repayment Assistance Plan runs 30 years. Switching between plans can change how existing payments are counted: payments made under other income-driven plans count toward the Repayment Assistance Plan’s 30-year timeline, but months on that plan do not count back toward Income-Based Repayment forgiveness. Anyone weighing a move should ask their servicer for a current qualifying payment total first and keep a written copy.

Since Jan. 1, 2026, a balance discharged at the end of an income-driven term is generally treated as taxable federal income in the year it is forgiven, after a temporary exemption expired at the end of 2025. That can leave a borrower owing the IRS on debt they never repaid in cash. Borrowers within a few years of that milestone should work out the potential liability with a tax professional before the discharge posts rather than after the forms arrive.

Recertification is the other place borrowers lose ground. Income-driven plans require periodic recertification of income and family size, and a missed deadline can push the monthly payment up to the amount owed under the 10-year Standard Repayment Plan and add unpaid interest to the balance.

Gaps in the repayment record carry the same risk. Periods of unemployment, deferment, forbearance or a return to school may or may not have been logged as qualifying time, and a miscount sitting in a servicer file can delay a discharge by years. Borrowers should request a full payment history, compare it against their own records and dispute any discrepancy early.

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Total and permanent disability discharge, known as TPD, cancels federal student loan debt for borrowers who are totally and permanently disabled. It covers Direct Loans, Federal Family Education Loan Program loans and Perkins Loans, which makes it one of the few relief categories that reaches every major federal loan type without requiring a borrower to consolidate first.

Three documentation routes establish eligibility. A borrower can qualify through a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs determination of a service-connected disability, through a Social Security Administration disability determination, or through a certification from a medical professional — a physician, nurse practitioner, physician assistant or licensed psychologist. Borrowers already drawing VA disability compensation or SSA disability benefits tend to move through review faster, because the agency record does much of the work that fresh medical paperwork would otherwise have to do.

The Department of Education identifies many qualifying borrowers through data matches with the VA and the SSA and discharges their loans automatically, without an application, unless they opt out. Borrowers who fit either profile should not sit and wait for that to happen. Asking about status directly is faster than counting on an administrative match to surface the right file.

TPD discharge can also cancel the service obligation attached to a TEACH Grant — short for Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education — when the recipient is totally and permanently disabled. The obligation is also discharged if the recipient dies or is subject to extended periods of qualifying military service. That matters for teachers who accepted a TEACH Grant and could not finish the classroom service it required.

Approval has not always been the end of the matter. Borrowers discharged in earlier years were placed in a post-discharge monitoring period, during which the debt could be reinstated if earnings rose above a set threshold or if the borrower took on new federal loans. That income-monitoring period no longer applies.

A borrower denied on a medical professional’s certification can file again later. A subsequent Social Security determination, or a documented worsening of the condition, can support a new application.

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Teachers can draw on more than one federal relief program, but the same period of teaching cannot earn credit toward both Teacher Loan Forgiveness and Public Service Loan Forgiveness. Teacher Loan Forgiveness pays up to $17,500 to borrowers who teach full time for five consecutive academic years at a qualifying low-income school — elementary, secondary, or an educational service agency — and the program covers both Direct Loans and Federal Family Education Loan Program loans.

The top award is narrower than the headline number suggests. Only qualifying secondary math and science teachers and special education teachers can receive the full $17,500. Other eligible teachers top out at $5,000, so borrowers should confirm which tier their subject and assignment fall into before counting on a figure.

Federal Perkins Loan Teacher Cancellation runs on separate terms. It erases all or part of a Perkins balance for full-time work at a qualifying public or nonprofit elementary school, or for service provided through Head Start or another early childhood education program. Applications do not go through a federal portal. They go to the institution that originally issued the loan, or to that institution's Perkins servicer. Perkins Loans stopped being issued years ago, so this route reaches a shrinking group of older borrowers who still carry a balance.

Eligibility for Teacher Loan Forgiveness turns on whether the school appears in the Education Department’s Teacher Cancellation Low Income Directory, which is revised annually. Once a school is listed for at least one year of a teacher’s service there, later years at that school still count even if it drops off the list. Years taught before a school was first listed do not count, so teachers should check the directory for every year they plan to claim.

The ban on double-counting matters most for public school teachers, since public schools are qualifying employers under PSLF as well. PSLF erases the entire remaining Direct Loan balance after 120 qualifying payments. Teacher Loan Forgiveness delivers a capped sum after five years and carries no requirement to stay in public service afterward. A teacher with a large balance and a long public-sector career ahead usually gains more from PSLF; one with a modest balance and uncertain plans may prefer the faster, smaller award.

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Closed school discharge cancels federal student loan debt for borrowers whose school shut down while they were still enrolled, or soon after they withdrew. It applies to Direct Loans, Federal Family Education Loan Program loans and Federal Perkins Loans, with no consolidation step required first.

The premise is that a borrower who paid for a credential the school can no longer deliver should not be held to the loan that financed it. Finishing the program is not a condition of this discharge — the closure itself is the basis for the claim.

That makes closed school discharge an exception to the rule that otherwise governs federal loans. Debt survives a bad outcome. A borrower who drops out, never works in the field they studied or regrets the education still owes the balance. A school that ceases to exist is treated differently.

Timing relative to the closure date decides most cases. A borrower enrolled on the day the school locked its doors has the cleanest claim. Someone who withdrew earlier may still qualify depending on how near that withdrawal fell to the shutdown. Enrollment agreements, transcripts, tuition statements, withdrawal paperwork and any notice the school sent students are all worth collecting and keeping.

That same file does double duty. If the school also misled students about accreditation, job placement or program outcomes before it collapsed, those records can support a borrower defense claim too. The two are separate applications with separate standards, but they often rest on the same paperwork.

Applications go through the loan servicer. Approval of the full amount ends repayment on the discharged loan. Certain types of discharge can also return money a borrower already paid and clear delinquency or default marks tied to the loan from a credit report. A prior default on the canceled loan no longer blocks a borrower from seeking new federal aid, as long as no other loan remains in default. A partial determination leaves whatever was not canceled due under the terms of the original promissory note.

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Borrower defense discharge cancels federal student loan debt for borrowers whose school deceived them or broke certain laws tied to the loan or the enrollment it paid for. It requires a Direct Loan. FFEL Program and Perkins Loan borrowers become eligible only after consolidating into the Direct Loan Program.

False certification discharge answers a narrower problem. It applies when a school signed off on a loan the borrower was never eligible to receive, and it covers Direct Loans and FFEL Program loans with no consolidation step. The distinction matters: borrower defense turns on what a school told a student, while false certification turns on whether the school should have approved the loan at all.

Both claims rise or fall on documentation. Admissions paperwork, enrollment agreements, recruiting materials, course catalogs, emails from advisors and any written claims about accreditation, job placement rates or credit transferability help establish the gap between what a school promised and what it delivered. General disappointment with a program is not a basis for either discharge. A specific, documented representation that turned out to be false is.

Borrowers who attended schools that drew Education Department scrutiny may find their claims reviewed alongside others who enrolled at the same institution during the same period. Individual applications remain available regardless of whether a school is already under review.

Payment obligations during review depend on the discharge type, so a borrower should ask the loan servicer directly whether to keep paying after filing rather than assume the claim pauses the bill. Approval can be full or partial. A full discharge ends repayment on that loan and may bring a refund of payments already made, plus removal of negative marks tied to missed payments or default from the borrower’s credit file. A partial approval leaves whatever was not canceled due. A denial puts the borrower back on the repayment schedule in the loan agreement they signed, and the servicer can walk through repayment options or steps out of default from there.

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Unpaid refund discharge cancels the portion of a federal student loan tied to money a school should have returned but never did. It applies to a borrower who withdrew from school while the institution held onto loan money it was supposed to send back to the servicer, and whose debt is a Direct Loan or a Federal Family Education Loan Program loan.

The scope is what separates this from the bigger relief programs. It reaches a slice of the debt, not the whole balance. A student who left partway through a term and was owed money back under the school’s refund obligations can expect relief sized to that unreturned amount, with the rest of the loan still due under the original repayment terms.

It also does not require the school to have closed or to have deceived anyone. The institution may still be operating normally. The failure at issue is administrative and financial — funds that belonged back with the servicer stayed with the school instead.

Forgery discharge covers a different problem entirely: a loan the borrower never legitimately took out. In this context, forgery means a document was faked, or a real one altered, with the aim of defrauding someone. Identity theft and forgery frequently overlap, since stealing a person’s information is usually a step toward signing their name. A borrower who believes a loan was taken out in their name without authorization may qualify if the debt is a Direct Loan, a Federal Family Education Loan Program loan held by the Education Department, or a Federal Perkins Loan held by the Education Department.

Because the claim is that the signature or authorization was never valid, the review turns on evidence about who actually signed the promissory note and completed the paperwork. Borrowers in either situation should contact their loan servicer early. Withdrawal dates, the refund rules a school had in effect at the time and records establishing identity theft all get harder to assemble as years pass.

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Death ends the repayment obligation on a federal student loan, whether the debt is a Direct Loan, an FFEL Program loan or a Perkins Loan. Parent PLUS loans carry a second trigger: the balance is also wiped out if the student the parent borrowed for dies. The servicer processes the discharge once it has the required documentation, so surviving relatives should contact the servicer directly rather than assume the debt passes to an estate or a spouse.

Parent PLUS borrowers sit in their own category for nearly everything else. Relief is available if the parent — not the student — becomes totally and permanently disabled, or if a bankruptcy court grants a discharge. All or part of the debt may also be cancelled when the school shut down before the student could finish the program, when the school falsely certified the parent’s eligibility for the loan, or when the student withdrew and the school never sent back loan funds the law required it to return.

Two repayment-based routes exist as well, both limited to parent PLUS loans made before July 1, 2026. A parent who spends 10 years in repayment while working in public service can apply for Public Service Loan Forgiveness. The other arrives after 25 years of payments on a Direct Consolidation Loan enrolled in the Income-Contingent Repayment Plan.

That second route has an expiration date, and it is closed to parents who did not consolidate in time. Only parent PLUS loans consolidated before July 1, 2026, can use ICR, and taking out a new parent PLUS loan on or after that date ends eligibility. ICR is scheduled to end by July 1, 2028 at the latest. A parent whose consolidation loan wraps in a PLUS balance and who wants access to the Income-Based Repayment Plan afterward must make at least one payment under ICR before the plan is retired. Skipping that single payment closes off the option.

One more item is worth a phone call. Parents still carrying Direct Loans they never consolidated, or FFEL PLUS loans held by the Education Department, qualify for the payment count adjustment, which adds credit toward both income-driven repayment and PSLF. Borrowers should request an updated count instead of trusting their own records.

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Filing for bankruptcy does not by itself erase a federal student loan. A borrower has to take a second, separate step called an adversary proceeding, asking the bankruptcy court to rule that continued repayment would place an undue hardship on the borrower and any dependents. Direct Loans, FFEL Program loans and Perkins Loans can all be discharged this way.

An adversary proceeding is effectively a lawsuit filed inside the bankruptcy case, with the loan holder as the opposing party. The borrower has to put forward evidence about income, living expenses, medical costs, dependents and future earning prospects, rather than simply listing the loan alongside credit card balances and medical debt on a bankruptcy schedule.

What qualifies as undue hardship is not defined in the Bankruptcy Code, and federal courts have interpreted it differently over the years. Outcomes turn heavily on the quality of a borrower’s financial documentation and on the standard applied in the federal circuit where the case is filed. Most borrowers who pursue this route work with an attorney familiar with both consumer bankruptcy and federal student loan rules, which adds cost and time on top of a standard filing.

The result can be a full discharge of the loan, a partial discharge, or no relief at all. A borrower whose adversary proceeding fails still owes the loan under the original terms of the promissory note, regardless of how the rest of the bankruptcy case is resolved.

Parent PLUS borrowers can use this same route, since a parent PLUS loan is eligible for discharge in bankruptcy under the same undue hardship analysis that applies to loans taken out by students.

Given the expense and the uncertainty, it is worth ruling out the simpler paths first. A borrower who is totally and permanently disabled, who attended a school that closed or misled them, or who could cut payments sharply under an income-driven plan may get comparable relief without ever setting foot in court. Bankruptcy tends to fit borrowers facing long-term, severe hardship rather than a temporary loss of income.