Processing IDR, PSLF Student Loan Forgiveness Could Take 'Months, If Not Years'

Forbes

17-04-2025

Borrowers are anxiously awaiting news on when their income-driven repayment or public service loan forgiveness student loan applications will finally be processed'; and the Education Department has yet to announce a concrete timeline. After a brief shutdown, the Department recently reopened applications for income-driven repayment plans but offered no timeline for processing them. With over one million borrowers' applications awaiting review, advocates worry that some borrowers may be waiting "months, if not years," to see their loans forgiven​, as a recent court filing noted.
Despite restarting IDR plan applications on March 26, 2025, the Education Department has not publicly announced a clear schedule for processing these pending requests. In court filings, federal officials indicated that student loan servicers will resume processing IDR applications by May 10, 2025,​ after the pause. However, no further details were provided about how quickly the backlog will be cleared. As of now, borrowers have no information on whether it will take weeks, months, or even longer for their forgiveness applications to be reviewed and approved.
'Based on the information currently available to the plaintiff, it profoundly doubts the defendants' assertions that they have fully met their statutory obligations to restored access to Income-Driven Repayment plans and that the plaintiff and its members are therefore no longer harmed," a filing by AFT and SBPC argued. 'Although borrowers can now apply for an Income-Driven Repayment plan and are not required to make monthly payments while their application is being processed, until a borrower is actively enrolled in an Income-Driven Repayment plan they continue to experience harm.'
This lack of transparency has left borrowers in limbo. "Delaying the processing of these applications will only cause more harm," Persis Yu, deputy executive director, and managing counsel at the Student Borrower Protection Center, which is representing the American Federation of Teachers in a lawsuit against the Department​ of Education, told me in an interview. Borrowers who expected imminent relief are now stuck wondering when or if their turn will come. The Education Department has not published the number of unprocessed applications, the rate at which servicers can handle them, or any target completion date for the backlog. In short, no one knows when forgiveness processing will be completed.
The AFT's lawsuit against the Department of Education is shining a spotlight on these unanswered questions. The union argues that by failing to process IDR and PSLF forms promptly, the department is blocking student loan borrowers from receiving the relief they're entitled to under the law. The DOE has 'not guaranteed that processing will commence on that date,' the AFT's filing notes. Furthermore, the DOE has 'not confirmed the extent of the backlog in applications' which suggests that 'ongoing harms could last well beyond May 10, 2025, stretching on for months, if not years.'
In an April court filing, AFT's attorneys urged the court to compel the Education Department to reveal key data about the scope of the backlog and its plans to address it​. Specifically, the AFT asked the court to order the Department of Education to disclose​ the following:
In addition to these data points, the AFT is seeking a commitment that the Department will process the pending applications within a 'reasonable timeframe' and not penalize borrowers for the delays​. That includes potentially crediting borrowers with PSLF qualifying months for the period their applications remain stuck in processing​. These requests underscore the core issue: Borrowers and advocates lack basic information about the status and speed of loan forgiveness processing. Without that information, knowing when relief will actually arrive is impossible.
In the court filing, the AFT's attorneys warned that, given the enormous backlog, borrowers' "ongoing harms could last well beyond May 10, 2025, stretching on for months, if not years." In other words, even after the Department officially resumes processing IDR and PSLF forms, the sheer volume of pending applications means forgiveness won't happen overnight. Yu notes that the backlog of 1 million applications predated the application freeze, which signals that the current backlog is likely much higher.
Education Department officials have maintained that they are working to restore normal operations after the legal injunctions and pauses (the DOE did not reply to a request for an interview or comment). However, their reluctance to provide detailed status updates has drawn criticism from Yu and others. The gap between vague assurances and complex data fuels frustration among those waiting. 'All of these people have the right to be in payment plans that count for cancellation, that are affordable, and that's been denied," Yu emphasized in our interview​. She noted that every month of delay is a month borrowers aren't getting credit toward forgiveness, which could set them back significantly over time.
The stakes are high for student loan borrowers, and many are stuck waiting without a timeline. Some public service workers on the verge of retirement or career changes are postponing those plans, fearing that a job switch could jeopardize their PSLF eligibility while their forgiveness applications languish.
The uncertainty will persist until the Department of Education provides a concrete processing timeline or clears the backlog. Advocates like the AFT and SBPC are pressing for transparency and speed. Yu told me, "we are pushing for specific data from the Department of Education as well as a plan for regular reporting so that the public understands when and how long processing will take."
A court hearing scheduled for April 17 may shed some light as a judge hears arguments about the student loan application processing data that AFT and SBPC have requested from the Department of Education, but so far, no one can say precisely when each borrower's long-awaited forgiveness will be processed.