# Plain Language Summary: Public Service Loan Forgiveness Inclusion Act of 2021

If you work in public service—like teaching, nursing, government, or nonprofit work—and you have federal student loans, this bill could make it easier for you to get your loans forgiven. Right now, the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program requires you to make 120 monthly payments (10 years' worth) on your loans while working in a qualifying public service job, and then your remaining debt gets wiped away. The problem is that many people have been making payments on different repayment plans before they switched to the specific plan required for loan forgiveness, and those earlier payments didn't count toward the 120-payment requirement. This bill changes that by allowing your first 60 payments to count toward forgiveness even if you made them under a different repayment plan.

Here's what this means in practical terms: If you've been paying on your student loans for five years (60 months) in public service work but weren't on the "right" repayment plan, those five years of payments would now count. Instead of starting your 10-year countdown from scratch, you'd only need to make 60 more qualifying payments to reach the 120-payment threshold and get forgiveness. This is especially helpful for people who switched jobs or didn't initially realize they qualified for the program.

The bill also requires the Department of Education to notify all federal student loan borrowers about this change within six months and explain how they can switch to a qualifying repayment plan if they want to take advantage of it. This ensures that people who might benefit from this change actually know about it and can take action to improve their situation.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness Inclusion Act of 2021

Foster, Bill

Public Service Loan Forgiveness Inclusion Act of 2021 This bill allows the first 60 monthly payments made by a borrower under a graduated repayment or extended repayment plan to become qualifying payments under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. However, the borrower must transfer to an eligible repayment plan, such as an income-based or standard repayment plan, for the remaining 60 monthly payments made under the PSLF program.