Education Dept. Unveils Fix For Student Loan Program’s ‘Bureaucratic Nightmare’
The move comes after a damning Government Accountability Office review, first reported by NPR. In that 2019 review, the federal watchdog found that during the expansion program’s first year, the department turned away 99% of applicants. The change — which the department posted to the Federal Register without a news release or other public announcement — will address one of the most alarming revelations in the GAO’s review: 71% of denials were essentially due to a paperwork technicality. According to the GAO, more than 38,000 applicants were denied relief under the expansion — known as Temporary Expanded Public Service Loan Forgiveness (TEPSLF) — simply because they hadn’t first applied for and been denied PSLF. The department’s fix is to consolidate the two programs into one application form so that borrowers applying for TEPSLF will no longer have to first file a separate application for PSLF.