Guide to Public Service Loan Forgiveness (2026)

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program was established by Congress in 2007 to encourage careers in government and nonprofit work. PSLF can erase your remaining federal student loan balance after 10 years of qualifying public service work. To be eligible, you must meet specific loan, repayment, and employment requirements. Here's what you need to know.

Compare student loan refinance rates

Overview of PSLF

What is Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF)?

PSLF is a federal student loan forgiveness program that cancels your remaining Direct Loan balance after making 120 on-time monthly payments while working full time for an eligible government or nonprofit employer.

The program is available to many public service workers, including teachers, nurses, military service members, and government employees.

PSLF eligibility requirements

To get student loan forgiveness through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, you need to meet specific eligibility requirements.   

Eligible loans

You must have federal Direct Loans that aren’t in default to be eligible for PSLF. If you have FFEL Program or Perkins Loans, you can make them eligible by consolidating them into a Direct Consolidation Loan. 

Parent PLUS loans have different rules. If you take out or consolidate a parent PLUS loan after July 1, 2026, it won’t qualify for PSLF.

Qualifying employment

To qualify for PSLF, you must work for an eligible public service employer. This includes federal, state, local, and tribal government organizations, as well as qualifying nonprofit organizations, including 501(c)(3) nonprofits.

You must also work an average of at least 30 hours per week. If you work for more than one qualifying employer, you can combine your hours to meet the 30-hour requirement. 

Repayment requirements

To qualify for PSLF, you generally need to make payments under an eligible income-driven repayment (IDR) plan, including:

• Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP)
• Income-Based Repayment (IBR)
• Pay As You Earn (PAYE)
• Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR)

The Standard Repayment Plan also qualifies for PSLF. However, because it's designed to repay your loans within a minimum of 10 years, you may have little or no balance left to forgive after making the required 120 qualifying monthly payments.

Application process and annual certification

To begin earning credit toward PSLF, you must submit a PSLF form that verifies your qualifying employment and helps track your eligible payments.

You can complete this form through the PSLF Help Tool on StudentAid.gov. The tool lets you look up your employer, fill out the PSLF form, and send it to an authorized official, such as someone in your human resources department, to certify your employment.

Once your form is processed, you’ll receive an updated count of your qualifying PSLF payments. You can also track your progress through your StudentAid.gov account.

You don’t have to certify your employment every year, but doing so can make the forgiveness process easier. The Department of Education recommends submitting a new PSLF form annually and whenever you change employers so your qualifying employment and payments are verified as you go.

PSLF alternatives  

If you don’t qualify for PSLF or no longer want to pursue the program, consider other student loan forgiveness programs and alternatives, such as: 

• Other job-based forgiveness programs: Teachers and health care providers may be eligible for other job-based forgiveness programs, such as Teacher Loan Forgiveness and the National Health Service Corps Loan Repayment Program. There may be additional state-based opportunities, such as the California State Loan Repayment Program. 
• Income-driven repayment forgiveness: You can easily shift from PSLF forgiveness to income-driven repayment forgiveness, but the timeline will change. Repaying loans on an IDR plan is a required part of PSLF forgiveness, which erases loans after 10 years. But if you no longer qualify for PSLF, you can still get forgiveness through one of the four income-driven repayment options after a period of 20 to 25 years, depending on the plan. 
• Student loan refinancing: Instead of forgiveness, you can also work to pay down your loan debt through student loan refinancing. Refinancing allows you to change the terms of your repayment and ideally qualify for a lower interest rate. The interest savings can speed up the repayment process and lower total costs over the life of the loan. This strategy does have a major risk, though. By going this route with federal student loans, you forfeit all federal loan benefits, including PSLF and other forgiveness programs. Be sure to carefully consider this before refinancing federal loans.