If you have federal student loans, you have one major benefit that you can take advantage of and that’s student loan forgiveness. You might wonder, “Are student loans forgiven after 20 years?”. The answer? It depends. There are some student loan forgiveness options available after 20 years, whereas others can take a longer or shorter amount of time. Read on to learn more about student loan forgiveness after 20 years as well as other options.
Are student loans actually forgiven after 20 years?
Student loans may be forgiven after 20 years if you meet a few requirements. If you’re looking for 20-year student loan forgiveness, then you’ll want to opt for an income-driven repayment plan (IDR).
What are the 20-year student loan forgiveness options?
The following income-driven repayment plans offer student loan forgiveness after 20 years:
- Revised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE) Plan — if loans are from obtaining an undergraduate degree
- Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Plan
- Income-Based Repayment Plan (IBR)— if you’re a recent borrower (after July 1, 2014)
Under an IDR plan, your monthly student loan payments are capped at a small percentage of your discretionary income, typically 10%. That way, your monthly payment is affordable and generally lower than the 10-year Standard Repayment plan.
These IDR plans have a longer loan repayment term — in fact, double that of Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF). You must recertify each year to stay on track. To do so, fill out the Income-Driven Repayment Plan Request Form.
These plans don’t have any career requirements, so you can work in any job to take advantage of this loan repayment assistance.
Nearly all federal student loan borrowers are eligible for one of these options. After making payments for 20 years, you could qualify for student loan forgiveness.
Just to make a note, there is one other income-driven repayment plan offering, which is Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR), but that has a repayment term of 25 years, not 20 years.
Additionally, Parent PLUS loans are typically excluded from student loan forgiveness options. However, if Parent PLUS loan borrowers consolidate with a Direct Consolidation Loan they may be eligible for student loan forgiveness, only under the ICR Plan.
What are the options and requirements for 10-year forgiveness through PSLF?
If you don’t want to wait 20 years for student loan forgiveness and want the shortest route to getting your loans gone, you’ll want 10-year student loan forgiveness.
The only option for this is through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, which is available to nonprofit and certain government workers. To be eligible for this 10-year student loan forgiveness program, you must be on an IDR plan and make regular monthly payments.
After making 120 monthly payments, you can apply for student loan forgiveness. Under PSLF, the remaining loan balance is forgiven and isn’t considered taxable income by Uncle Sam.
10 vs 20 year student loan forgiveness
If you have federal loans and want student loan forgiveness, you want to evaluate your options.
Under the 10-year student loan forgiveness option, PSLF, you must be on an IDR plan. You’re also on an IDR plan with the 20-year student loan forgiveness option. Both keep your monthly payment amount at a minimum but one requires full-time work with a qualifying employer.
If you decide to not do 10-year student loan forgiveness because you don’t want to work in public service or you want to change careers, all is not lost. If you’re ineligible for PSLF in the long run, you still have options.
You can stay on an IDR plan and get student loan forgiveness after 20 years.
Which one is better?
From a time perspective, 10-year student loan forgiveness is a good option because you’re making payments for a shorter amount of time. That briefer time frame means paying less in interest overall. On top of that, you don’t have to pay taxes on the forgiven amount.
However, there are career requirements that are pretty important to consider. Having strings attached to your job is a considerable commitment. You shouldn’t base your job on student loan forgiveness.
If working in public service with a low income will make you miserable, you’re better off getting student loan forgiveness after 20 years with an IDR plan. Bonus – you’ll likely be able to make more money not working in public service, which can make managing student loan debt easier.
On the other hand, if you plan on working in the public sector anyway, going after PSLF makes sense. Even if you change your mind mid-way, you can pursue long-term forgiveness if you stay on an income-driven plan.
Simply stick to IDR, and if there’s still a balance after 20 years, you can get your loans forgiven. Just be sure to save up for taxes so you’re not dealing with a huge financial hardship. We recommend using Betterment, which is an investment brokerage, so you can get the best returns on the money you put away for taxes.
Bottom line
If you want to discharge loans after 20 years and have your student loan repayment be done with, you have options. Just make sure you check out the eligibility requirements for income-driven repayment plans, to find the right option for you.
Whether you opt for 20-year student loan forgiveness under IDR or 10-year forgiveness with PSLF, you have repayment assistance programs to choose from. If you’re experiencing undue hardship but don’t necessarily need student loan forgiveness, you can ask your loan servicer about deferment and forbearance.
Do you need help deciding how you should tackle your student loans? Get in touch with us to create a custom plan just for you.
Take our 11 question quiz to get a personalized recommendation of whether you should pursue PSLF, IDR forgiveness, or refinancing (including the one lender we think could give you the best rate).
Take Our Quiz1Earnest: $1,000 for $100K or more, $200 for $50K to $99.999.99. For Earnest, if you refinance $100,000 or more through this site, $500 of the $1,000 cash bonus is provided directly by Student Loan Planner. Rate range above includes optional 0.25% Auto Pay discountEarnest disclosures. 2Laurel Road: If you refinance more than $250,000 through our link and Student Loan Planner receives credit, a $500 cash bonus will be provided directly by Student Loan Planner. If you are a member of a professional association, Laurel Road might offer you the choice of an interest rate discount or the $300, $500, or $750 cash bonus mentioned above. Offers from Laurel Road cannot be combined. Rate range above includes optional 0.25% Auto Pay discount. Laurel Road disclosures.3Elfi: If you refinance over $150,000 through this site, $500 of the cash bonus listed above is provided directly by Student Loan Planner. Elfi disclosure. 4Sofi: If you refinance $100,000 or more through this site, $500 of the $1,000 cash bonus is provided directly by Student Loan Planner. Rate range above includes optional 0.25% Auto Pay discount. Sofi disclosures.5Commonbond: If you refinance over $100,000 through this site, $500 of the cash bonus listed above is provided directly by Student Loan Planner. Commonbond disclosure. 6Credible: If you refinance over $100,000 through this site, $500 of the cash bonus listed above is provided directly by Student Loan Planner. Credible disclosure. 7LendKey: If you refinance over $150,000 through this site, $500 of the cash bonus listed above is provided directly by Student Loan Planner. Rate range above includes optional 0.25% Auto Pay discount.
Are there any attorneys who deal with auditing PSLF service credits?
Sort of, none that specialize in only that, but the list of attorneys on this post is a good place to start https://www.studentloanplanner.com/student-loan-lawyer/
If you reach the 20 year mark since you’ve taken out federal student loans and some of that time was on one of their income based payment plans and at times they allowed zero monthly payments, does that period stop the clock for the 20 years? Do you have to contact them to have the balance forgiven or will they automatically process the loan forgiveness? Thank you.
It’s automatically processed since it’s listed in your master NSLDS file, that period counts if it was on an IDR payment plan and not forbearance
How does this work if you consolidated your loan. I Have been paying over 10 years thru a consolidation agency, when I called they said , my loan doesn’t qualify for that? Do i have any options.
Some types of loans don’t qualify, especially if you got your loan before 2010. Would definitely suggest talking to one of our student loan planners to get you on the right plan.
I did 2 IBR in 2015 on two different student loan one federal and one private. So if I did it after July 2014 it would be 20 years to go away, or what should I do? Currently I’m at $0 Payment because I’m not making much money with 4 kids.
Try our student loan calculator to see what would be the best path forward for you. Or, if you owe at least $20,000, I recommend a student loan consult so you know for sure you’re on the right path to forgiveness after 20 years.
I have a loan that is going to be 24 years old in August. I have made barely a dent in payments of the original loan of $20, 602. Interest is accruing at a ridiculous rate and my loan balance is now $166,462. I have made deferments and forbearances due to having to choose between mine and my child’s medications or school loans. My child is diabetic and I am bipolar. I am willing to pay the original balance and $10,000 interest but to never be able to pay this is affecting my credit drastically. Navient owns my loan currently and the minimum they want is $1244 per month so I am automatically deferred because I can’t even make an income-driven payment of $800 per month per their guidelines. Is there anything I can do to stop the interest adding up on this loan and find a solution to pay it off in a reasonable manner?
Your loan balance can grow significantly each time you defer or go into forbearance because of interest capitalization, and it looks like that’s what happened in your case. There’s a great article that explains it here. Instead of referring or asking for forbearance, setting up an income-driven repayment plan can make your monthly payments more affordable. I’d suggest you book a consult to get a plan, especially considering your balance is over $150k. Just click the “Get Help” link at the top of the site.
Does consolidating federal and private student loans disqualify me from having my loans forgiven? I started repayment with Sallie Mae in 2004 and transferred my loans to Citizens Bank in 2017, never missing a payment.
You can only get loan forgiveness with federal student loans. Sallie Mae and Citizens Bank are private loans, so they don’t qualify for forgiveness.
Hello, thanks for your time. I am retired, I just turned 70!! I have a fed loan since 1997. I paid on this loan periodically. As my low income wouldn’t allow me to be consistent. I was either in forbearance or deferment. I’m on SS now, which means paying just my monthly bills is a struggle. Would my student be fogiven at any time??? Since its 25 yrs old?? Thank you.
Your loans could be forgiven if you meet eligibility requirements. If you want some peace of mind about your debt, I suggest you book a consult with one of our student loan planners.