Student Loan Forgiveness program gives students breathing room

By Ellen Papp, Arts & Life Writer

Starting college is a fun and exciting time for majority of students, but once it comes time for graduating and the thoughts of all your student loan debt begin to surface, college may start to appear less fun and exciting.

As stated by Department of Education, “The average student loan as of 2014 is $26,000* and this number is rapidly growing each year. That total student loan debt has topped 1 trillion dollars.”

With the high rate of student debt and the low rate of employment these days, has created quite the issue for college students in terms of paying back their loans.

When knowing even a degree can’t guarantee you a decent paying job, can leave many students feeling hopeless as graduation approaches.

Thankfully, the Student Loan Forgiveness program provides just the hope these students need in terms of financial circumstances.

The Student Loan Forgiveness program is a repayment incentive program that allows borrower’s student loans to be forgiven after a certain number of qualifying payments.

The main forgiveness programs that are available to graduating students are the Public Service Loan Forgiveness and the Teacher Loan Forgiveness.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness is a program that motivates graduating students to enter and continue in full time public service employment by forgiving the remaining balance of their qualifying payments on their loans, while employed full time by certain public service employers.

To Qualify for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness it is essential to be employed full time by a public service organization, while making the 120 required payments on your loan before being able to receive loan forgiveness.

Qualify careers for public loan forgiveness are, any job in the government, government military service, emergency management, public safety, law enforcement, public health, and public education, to list just a few.

The Teacher Loan Forgiveness is a program that allows eligible borrowers to have up to $17,500 of their Federal Direct Stafford loans forgiven after 5 years of teaching full-time at an eligible elementary or secondary school.

To further elaborate on the requirements for the requirements of an eligible school, the school must in a qualified Title I district, has to be listed in the Designated Low-Income School Directory, and more than thirty percent of the school’s students qualify for Title I services.

To Qualify for this plan, one must have been employed as a teacher for five continuous years, not be in default on subsidized or unsubsidized student loans, have loans that were originated prior to or throughout the five year qualifying term, and lastly one must be employed at an eligible school.

For those who can not qualify for either of those programs, there is still hope to have their debt forgiven, with the Pay As you Earn student Loan Repayment  Plan.

For graduating students who are facing partial financial deprivations, this plan provides you with the lowest monthly payment amount of the repayment plans based on your income, family size, and state of residency. These monthly payments under the plan are limited at ten percent of your discretionary income.

In order to qualify for the Pay as you Earn plan, graduating students must have Stafford, Direct PLUS Loans or consolidation loans that do not include loans made to parents.

The Student Loan Program Forgiveness program sheds light for numerous graduating students as they approach their graduation date and must begin to face the dreaded student loan debt.

To find out if you qualify call  877-698-2733 and for more information you may go to http://studentservicesgroup.com/forgiveness/piggyforgiveGraphic by Ted Boyer