The Department of Education has released the application for students seeking debt relief for their federal student loans. An estimated 42 million borrowers qualify for the program. While some borrowers will automatically receive debt relief, most will have to apply.

Steps to Apply

If you qualify for and want to receive this relief, and have not already been notified of automatic approval by email or text from Federal Student Aid (FSA), you should take these steps now:

1. Check to see if you are eligible. Key considerations are borrower income, loan type and loan disbursement dates. Follow these simple steps to determine eligibility.

2. Apply now. Don’t wait until payments resume in January 2023. You could wind up making monthly payments you don’t need to make.

3. Make sure your contact information is up-to-date in your profile on both your loan servicer’s website and on StudentAid.gov. Your loan servicer will notify you when the relief has been applied to your account.

4. Brace yourself for uncharted territory. Nothing like this has ever been done, but you can take steps now to prepare and protect yourself from the unknown.

Don’t Get Scammed

While this payment relief is intended to help borrowers, new plans are frequently accompanied by increased scam attempts to take advantage of them.

According to FSA, borrowers have reported receiving calls, emails, letters, and/or texts offering student loan debt relief or warning them that student loan forgiveness programs would end soon.

Keep in mind that:

• You never have to pay for help with your federal student loans.
• No one should ever ask for your account login information.
• Official emails from FSA come from noreply@studentaid.gov, noreply@debtrelief.studentaid.gov or gov@public.govdelivery.com.

Healthy skepticism is your best defense against student loan scams. If you are unsure an offer is legitimate, contact your servicer to verify.

Get Free Support and Assistance

In addition to your loan servicer, Student Connections provides FREE student loan support services on behalf of colleges and universities. We provide resources like repaymyloans.org and a team of Borrower Advocates. An advocate can help you find your loan information and answer your questions.

We have more than 60 years of experience counseling student loan borrowers. Our primary goal is helping you receive the debt relief you are entitled to and successfully repay any remaining balance.

If you have questions, you may contact us directly at (866) 311-9450 to speak with a Borrower Advocate Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET. We also can be reached via email at intouch@studentconnections.com.

To find out more about Student Connections and our mission, click here to watch a short video on how we can help!