Can counselors get loan forgiveness?
D. students who graduated from health service programs carried a median of $75,000 in
PSLF provides complete student loan forgiveness on your remaining student loan balance after 10 years of service and 120 qualifying payments. Also, any amount that's forgiven is tax-free. Counselors and mental health therapists often work for nonprofit facilities or schools. That makes them good candidates for PSLF.
Through the program, psychologists can have up to $50,000 of their student loans forgiven each year for two years (up to $100,000). In exchange, you must commit to at least two years of research. You can apply to the LRP as an independent researcher or a mentored researcher.
Defaulted Direct Loans are not eligible for PSLF and payments made while the loan was in default cannot count toward the 120 required payments. However, a defaulted loan may become eligible for PSLF if you resolve the default. Learn how to get your loan out of default.
Seventy-eight percent of graduate students in clinical, counseling, school and combined psychology programs have grad school loan debt, with a median debt of $80,000. In comparison, just 48 percent of graduate students in other psychology programs have debt. For those who do, the median grad school debt is $32,000.
D. students who graduated from health service programs carried a median of $75,000 in student debt, while graduates with doctorates in psychology owed an average of $200,000 in loans. Unlike other professions, counselors both qualify for loan forgiveness and work in a field that offers ample employment opportunities.
Counselors who meet the requirements of teacher loan forgiveness can qualify for cancellation of up to 100 percent of a Federal Perkins Loan.
You must be a direct employee of a qualifying employer for your employment to qualify. This means that employees of contracted organizations, that are not themselves a qualifying employer, won't qualify for PSLF including government contractors and for-profit organizations.
Any month when your scheduled minimum payment on an income-driven plan is $0 will count toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) as long as are employed full-time by a qualifying employer during that month.
To be considered a qualifying employer for Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF), an employer must be a not-for-profit or governmental organization. If your employer is organized as a for-profit organization, it can't be a qualifying employer, regardless of the services it provides.
Do private practice therapists qualify for PSLF?
To qualify for PSLF, you must be employed at a US government organization at any level (federal, state, local, or tribal) – including U.S. military service, or a qualifying nonprofit organization.
Mental health counselor income and career outlook
The median income for a licensed mental health counselor was around $51,240, according to US News & World Report in 2022. Counselors can specialize in a number of different areas, and specializing in mental health is toward the bottom in terms of income.
To receive loan forgiveness via the TPD discharge program, borrowers must meet the legal criteria for relief: They must be “unable to engage in any substantial gainful activity by reason of a medically determinable physical or mental impairment.” The impairment must have either lasted for the previous five years, is ...
If you work full time for a government or nonprofit organization, you may qualify for forgiveness of the entire remaining balance of your Direct Loans after you've made 120 qualifying payments—i.e., 10 years of payments. To benefit from PSLF, you need to repay your federal student loans under an IDR plan.
Under Public Service Loan Forgiveness, borrowers in public service for 10 years who have made 120 months of qualifying payments can get their remaining student debt canceled.
Under the Teacher Loan Forgiveness (TLF) Program, if you teach full time for five complete and consecutive academic years in a low-income school or educational service agency, and meet other qualifications, you may be eligible for forgiveness of up to $17,500 on your Direct Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loans and your ...
All borrowers on SAVE receive forgiveness after 20 or 25 years, depending on whether they have loans for graduate school. The benefit is based upon the original principal balance of all Federal loans borrowed to attend school, not what a borrower currently owes or the amount of an individual loan.
Cons/Risks
Must be employed by a U.S. federal, state, local, or tribal government or not-for-profit organization. Must work full-time. Must have have qualifying student loans. Must pay your student loans under an income-driven repayment plan.
There is no income requirement to qualify for PSLF.
Under the one-time IDR account adjustment, any payments made toward your federal loans while working a qualifying PSLF job during or after October 2007, regardless of the payment plan you've been on, will count toward PSLF. That includes months spent in the pandemic payment pause from March 2020 through September 2023.
How much will PSLF forgive?
There is no limit to how much can be forgiven by PSLF. The program forgives the remaining balance of your federal student debt after 10 years of service and 120 payments to your federal student loans. We have seen NEA members receive on loans with balances of $20,000, $100,000, and even more.
Borrowers who have reached 20 or 25 years (240 or 300 months) worth of eligible payments for IDR forgiveness will see their loans forgiven as they reach these milestones. ED will continue to discharge loans as borrowers reach the required number of months for forgiveness.
Employment with a U.S. government entity at any level (federal, state, local, or tribal), or an organization that is tax exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code is a qualifying employer for PSLF regardless of the specific services that are provided.
The U.S. Department of Education's updated Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program launched on July 1, 2023, and will now allow eligible California physicians to participate in the program, despite our state prohibitions on physician employment by private non-profit hospitals, clinics, foundations and other ...
Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLF) for Healthcare Workers. All qualified professionals in the healthcare industry are eligible for any kind of student loan forgiveness program.
