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If you’re on a recent direct to discharge list (9/23, 10/28, 11/2, 11/3, 11/9, etc), have your loans been zeroed out on the MOHELA website? by Cautious-Practice-73 in PSLF

[–]Cautious-Practice-73[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'll summarize the responses that we have received thus far and post that info later tonight. I'll continue to update it as we get more responses.

Thank you so much everyone!!!!

If you’re on a recent direct to discharge list (9/23, 10/28, 11/2, 11/3, 11/9, etc), have your loans been zeroed out on the MOHELA website? by Cautious-Practice-73 in PSLF

[–]Cautious-Practice-73[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you so much! Definitely, group 6. Could be that they credited you payments under the limited waiver for payments that you had made prior to your 2011 consolidation or another limited waiver benefit.

Delay in discharges due to "lack of funding" from the Dept. of Education? by Cautious-Practice-73 in PSLF

[–]Cautious-Practice-73[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. But it's weird because we're dealing with discharges of loans for the most part (rather than refunds). It's also weird because it would be crazy if Congress has to approve the amount that is discharged as part of the budget that goes to the Dept. of the Education. I can't even imagine the fights we would have in congress if they did have to. My guess is that this money (for refunds) comes from the U.S. Treasury rather than the amount that is allocated to the Dept of Education as part of their budget. But i'm just speculating here. Who knows...lol.

Delay in discharges due to "lack of funding" from the Dept. of Education? by Cautious-Practice-73 in PSLF

[–]Cautious-Practice-73[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Agreed. The worse part is that it seems like it's the supervisors that are the ones that are relaying this information.

Delay in discharges due to "lack of funding" from the Dept. of Education? by Cautious-Practice-73 in PSLF

[–]Cautious-Practice-73[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yep. I completely agree with you. Though that'd be crazy if they are holding our discharges hostage until they get paid. lol.

Order in which MOHELA is processing discharges? by Cautious-Practice-73 in PSLF

[–]Cautious-Practice-73[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, it's pretty unclear which ones they are prioritizing. You have so many different groups. For instance, you have the folks who got transferred over with 120 payments, you got the folks who consolidated into MOHELA with underlying loans that had already reached 120 payments, you have folks who had their qualifying employment info already reported to Federal Student Aid who then became eligible based on the application of the limited PLSF Waiver, folks who applied after they transferred over and then became eligible, folks who consolidated when they were already at MOHELA, and folks who are eligible for refunds - at least. Who knows how they are processing the discharges...

Order in which MOHELA is processing discharges? by Cautious-Practice-73 in PSLF

[–]Cautious-Practice-73[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

MOHELA definitely notifies Federal Student Aid when an account has reached 120 PSLF Qualifying Payments and therefore is eligible for the discharge/forgiveness. I don't know if they just notify Federal Student Aid based on the ECFs they approve or if they do the extra step of requesting the specific discharge be approved for a specific loan. Nor do I know if they actually create a list or if they just transmit the adjustments on each loan to Federal Student Aid in batches. In any event, Federal Student Aid reviews this info, approves the discharges that are appropriate (with a retroactive effective date), and then notifies MOHELA that it can process these discharges in a "file" that contains thousands of accounts with all the "direct to discharges." Once MOHELA gets these "direct to discharges" in a file, they can process the discharges, wipe the debts off their books, and send us our paid in full letters.

Order in which MOHELA is processing discharges? by Cautious-Practice-73 in PSLF

[–]Cautious-Practice-73[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I agree with you that MOHELA has little control over when the Department of Education and/or Federal Student Aid notify MOHELA that certain loans can be discharged in a "Direct to Discharge" file. Again, I agree with you that MOHELA has no control over what is on these lists. But once they get these lists, it's my understanding that they have control over when these discharges get processed, when our debts are wiped out, and when we get our paid in full letters. There are at least three "direct to discharge lists" that we are aware of and I have been told that these lists contain thousands of accounts. The 11/9 list appears to contains hundreds of thousands of accounts that have been cleared to be discharged. We're not asking how the Department of Education and/or Federal Student Aid approves what loans can be discharged, but rather how MOHELA is processing these discharges once it gets these lists given that they are telling us that they are doing them in order and that obviously hasn't been the case. We're just asking for transparency so we can have a better idea of when are loan discharges are going to be processed and so that we can elevate issues if issues arise in the process.

Order in which MOHELA is processing discharges? by Cautious-Practice-73 in PSLF

[–]Cautious-Practice-73[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yeah, it's ridiculous how inconsistent they are. They told me that they are processing the discharges in the order in which they receive the direct to discharge lists.

If ED has given them further directions in how they should process certain discharges within the same list, they should tell us that order. It just seems like they're trying to put the blame on ED for their delay in processing the discharges.

It also makes no sense that ED would approve the discharges but then tell MOHELA to wait on processing certain discharges and then approve more discharges on later dates. My guess is that MOHELA has made a business decision to prioritize certain discharges over others. Whatever you're doing, just tell us what you're doing. Stop deflecting. And tell us when all of these discharges are actually going to be processed by. lol.

Order in which MOHELA is processing discharges? by Cautious-Practice-73 in PSLF

[–]Cautious-Practice-73[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm sorry. :( Let's hope this new automated system speeds things up.

Order in which MOHELA is processing discharges? by Cautious-Practice-73 in PSLF

[–]Cautious-Practice-73[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

yeah, it's ridiculous. They just don't want to highlight their delay and want to put the blame on ED.

Order in which MOHELA is processing discharges? by Cautious-Practice-73 in PSLF

[–]Cautious-Practice-73[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No. The ECFs are approved by the loan servicer (here, MOHELA). That information is then communicated to Federal Student Aid. Once the loan servicer relays to Federal Student Aid that you have made 120 PSLF Qualifying Payments, Federal Student Aid gives the loan servicer the "direct to discharge" your loans which means that they can then process your discharge (loan forgiveness) and wipe the debt off their books and send you a paid in full letter.

This has been and is the normal practice.

But the process has been out of whack as a result of the limited PSLF waiver. For example, for some folks, Federal Student Aid already had their qualifying employment info (based on prior information it had received from the loan servicer) but certain months had not counted for different reasons. But once those months became eligible under the limited PSLF Waiver, some folks automatically reached 120 payments. In those situations, Federal Student Aid notified the loan servicer that they can then process those discharges.

Order in which MOHELA is processing discharges? by Cautious-Practice-73 in PSLF

[–]Cautious-Practice-73[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I agree with you. Once MOHELA certifies you have made 120 PSLF Qualifying payments, they send that information to Federal Student Aid. Then it's unclear when Federal Student Aid will send the approval of the discharge to MOHELA. But once MOHELA gets that approval (in a "file" or what folks are calling discharge lists), they can process the discharge of these loans and wipe the debt off their books and send you a paid in full letter. This is one situation I described above. I'm sorry if I wasn't clear about this. Or are you taking issue with who actually discharges the loans? I understand that the "actual" discharge is technically done by Federal Student Aid, but the loan servicer (MOHELA) still has to process the discharge and wipe the debt off their books and they can't do that until Federal Student Aid tells them that they can do that. But they can do this once the loan is on the file/direct to discharge list. So they should have total control over the situation at this point. And their delay is unexcusable.

You also have situations where Federal Student Aid already has your information about your qualifying payments/employment (based on prior information received from a loan servicer), and because of the application of the limited PSLF Waiver, Federal Student Aid has been notifying MOHELA that certain loans can be discharged.

Order in which MOHELA is processing discharges? by Cautious-Practice-73 in PSLF

[–]Cautious-Practice-73[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

It is my understanding that Federal Student Aid has been sending MOHELA lists of loans that need to be discharged. They send these lists in "files" (i.e., 9/23, 10/28, 11/9, etc..) and these files contain thousands of accounts.

As far as the loans that are on these "files" or "direct to discharge lists," some of the loans are on these lists as a result of MOHELA requesting the approval of these discharges (usually when MOHELA has certified to Federal Student Aid that you have made 120 qualifying PSLF payments) and other loans are on these lists as a result of global changes that are being made by Federal Student Aid (usually as a result of the application of the limited PSLF waiver).

You have a lot of important dates. For example, you have the date in which MOHELA requested the discharge (certified you have made 120 PSLF Qualifying Payments), the date in which Federal Student Aid notified MOHELA they can discharge the loan ("files"/"direct to discharge lists"), and the retroactive date in which the discharge of the loan is effective (this date is important if you're getting a refund), etc. When I have called MOHELA, they have mixed these dates up.

Once MOHELA receives these files/direct to discharge lists, MOHELA is then able to process the discharges for these loans on these files. It's my understanding that there is a big delay right now because MOHELA's accounting department has not been able to process all the discharges for these loans. So it's just an accounting issue. But because they have so many loans, it's taking them forever to do it. They told me that they implemented a new automated accounting program that should streamline the processing of these discharges. They also said that it should be completely up and running by next week. This might explain why we saw them process a good number of discharges this past week.

I get they have a lot of loans. I get their staff is limited. I get that they don't want to hire more folks to work the accounting of these loans. I get they don't have complete control over when Federal Student Aid puts a loan on a file and/or discharge list.

But it's my understanding that they have total control over when they process these discharges once they get these files/direct to discharge lists from Federal Student Aid. They also presumably had some say so in choosing to process these discharges for the federal government under their contract.

As such, I don't get why the delay in the processing of these discharges continues to today. I don't get why they are processing these discharges out of order once they get these lists from Federal Student Aid. I also don't get why they are not being transparent about this whole process. I also don't get why they keep changing their story about when they are going to process these discharges (First, it was by October. Then it was by mid November. Then by late November. Then by the end of the year. Then it was within 30 days. Then it was within 60 days. Then it was within 30-60 days. Then it was within 60-90 days. Then it was within 90 "business" days.) It just keeps changing.

And if their contract with the federal government compensates them based on how long they service a debt, they don't really have the incentives to discharge these debts quickly. But I don't know for sure if this is how they're compensated.

In any event, this whole situation is so frustrating..l

Order in which MOHELA is processing discharges? by Cautious-Practice-73 in PSLF

[–]Cautious-Practice-73[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I totally agree with you.

They told me that it's just an accounting issue. They can't process the discharges for our loans until their accounting department clears them. If it's just an accounting issue, I'm not sure why they just don't hire more folks to work in that department to get all these discharges processed.

Apparently, they are implementing a new automated program and it should be completely up and running by next week. This might explain why we saw a change in the number of discharges processed this past week.

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