UNITED STATES
The United States Department of Education has given into pressure, saying it will make it easier to apply for the controversial Public Service Loan Forgiveness Scheme.
The application process for the scheme, in which graduates agree to work in low-paying Public Service jobs and make repayments off their student loans for 10 years to qualify for forgiveness of the outstanding sum, has faced criticism for being too unwieldy.
In a notice published in the Federal Register, the Department said it planned to consolidate the two forms required to apply for the program into one.
The process came under fire after a Government Accountability Office report last September found only one per cent of the 54,000 applications for the scheme were approved in the year to May 2019.
A total of 71 per cent of the denials were because the borrower did not submit the right paperwork.
A spokesperson for the Department said the form consolidation was “just another action we are taking as part of our commitment to simplifying the program”.
Chair of the House of Representatives Education Committee, Bobby Scott said the Department’s work was not done.
“I am relieved that, in response to intense public pressure, the Department is finally taking a step toward fixing the application process,” Mr Scott said.
“However, this change alone does not satisfy the Department’s responsibility to faithfully implement the law.”
He said Secretary of the Department, Betsy DeVos (pictured) and the Administration of President Donald Trump must clearly communicate the changes to student borrowers, and then quickly process claims so that borrowers could get relief.
Washington, 4 February 2020
