What the New PSLF Class Action Lawsuit Means for Student Loan Borrowers

On October 30, 2026, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and a group of student loan borrowers filed a class action lawsuit against the Education Department over ongoing problems with the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. The suit represents a major development as borrowers contend with an increasingly dysfunctional PSLF system.

PSLF allows borrowers to get their federal student loans forgiven after making 120 qualifying payments, which is the equivalent of 10 years. Payments must be made on Direct Loans under eligible repayment plans while borrowers work in full-time positions for qualifying nonprofit or government organizations. To get PSLF credit for payments already made, borrowers must periodically certify their employment. They must complete and submit a final PSLF employment certification to apply for (and receive) student loan forgiveness under the program.

But the new lawsuit alleges that the Education Department is mismanaging the PSLF program on a massive scale. Borrowers are losing PSLF credit, getting lost in significant backlogs and processing delays, and getting blocked from student loan forgiveness, according to the suit. And the problems appear to be getting worse.

“The nationwide suit, Weingarten v. McMahon, lays bare the gross mismanagement of the buyback and other key provisions of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program by McMahon and her Department of Education,” said Protect Borrowers, a nonprofit legal organization representing the AFT and student loan borrowers in the suit, in an October 30, 2026, statement. “Tens of thousands of borrowers have applied for debt relief, but their applications are stuck in limbo, with no updates for months on end.”

Here’s what the new PSLF class action lawsuit is about, and what student loan borrowers need to know.

Class action lawsuit focuses on PSLF mismanagement by the Education Department

The new lawsuit alleges that the Education Department is not properly managing the PSLF program, which is leading to major processing delays, stalled PSLF tracking, and delayed student loan forgiveness. All of these issues are harming borrowers, the suit says, and preventing them from receiving the relief they are entitled to under federal law.

“With nowhere else to turn, AFT brings this action on behalf of members who face mounting and ongoing harm,” reads the Complaint filed in federal district court in the District of Columbia. “Their right to debt forgiveness is being withheld or postponed, monthly payments they had stopped budgeting for have resumed, and debt they believed was behind them now threatens their credit, their housing, and their families’ financial security. Some are reconsidering whether they can afford to stay in public service at all, which is the very outcome PSLF was designed to prevent. AFT itself has been forced to divert staff and resources from its core mission to triage these members’ cases, work it cannot sustain and should never have had to do.”

3 PSLF problems the lawsuit names

The lawsuit identifies three specific problems student loan borrowers are encountering when pursuing PSLF, including:

• Major delays impacting PSLF Buyback, a PSLF-adjacent program that allows borrowers to apply to make a payment covering certain prior deferment or forbearance periods (such as the SAVE Plan forbearance period) so that it can count toward student loan forgiveness under PSLF. Some borrowers are reporting processing times reaching two years or longer after submitting their PSLF Buyback application.
• Clawbacks and reversals of earned PSLF credit, even in circumstances where borrowers were apparently meeting all PSLF program requirements and were making on-time payments under covered repayment plans.
• Delayed PSLF processing, leading to some recent payments not getting counted toward PSLF, and some recent months not even showing up in borrowers’ PSLF Trackers at StudentAid.gov. In some cases, borrowers are unable to get student loan forgiveness as a result of these delays, despite making their required 120 qualifying payments.

Who the PSLF class action lawsuit covers

The new lawsuit is a proposed class action lawsuit, but it hasn’t yet obtained official class action status. To do that, the court overseeing the case would have to consider and approve the case for class certification.

If the case is eventually certified as a class action, the Complaint identifies three distinct “classes” of student loan borrowers who could be covered by the suit:

• A “PSLF Buyback” class, which the complaint describes as “All borrowers who have satisfied the public service requirements of PSLF, and have submitted a PSLF Buyback application, but for whom the Department has not processed their PSLF Buyback applications within 90 days of filing the PSLF Buyback application.”
• A “PSLF Clawback” class, which the complaint describes as “All borrowers from whom the Department removed qualifying payment credits for months that were considered qualifying payments at the time that they were awarded, and who would have reached the 120 qualifying payments required for loan cancellation under PSLF but for the removal of those months, and who should therefore qualify to have their loans cancelled.”
• A “PSLF Qualifying Payments Withholding Class,” which the complaint describes as “All borrowers for whom the Department has failed to credit their account for qualifying payments toward PSLF and for whom the withheld months would count either as their 120th months necessary for cancellation under PSLF or the months necessary to qualify for the PSLF Buyback process.”

The lawsuit seeks a declaration that the Education Department’s actions are unlawful, and a court order compelling the department to comply with the law by processing PSLF Buyback applications, restoring rescinded PSLF credit, crediting all qualifying PSLF payments appropriately, and discharging the federal student loans for borrowers who have become eligible for relief.

What comes next for the PSLF class action lawsuit

The lawsuit is unlikely to result in immediate relief for borrowers who are stuck with one of these PSLF issues, but it is an important initial step. The complaint was filed October 30, 2026, and the Department of Education must be given time under court rules to submit a formal response. The department could file an Answer as its response, or — more likely — it could file a Motion to Dismiss (a request to the court to toss the legal challenge entirely), which could take months to resolve.

If the suit is able to survive a motion to dismiss, the challengers have a number of potential litigation options at that point, including seeking a preliminary injunction and formally seeking class action status. Student loan borrowers won’t need to formally “join” the lawsuit to potentially benefit from an injunction or a certified class action status, as any associated relief should be provided to all affected borrowers automatically.

For now, student loan borrowers should monitor developments as the PSLF class action lawsuit proceeds. In the meantime, borrowers should periodically download and retain key records, such as qualifying PSLF payment counts, payment histories, and relevant letters and notices.