Guide for Employers and Membership Orgs

You can learn more about the PSLF Waiver on this website, but also in this summary from the New York Times, Rich Leimsider’s New York Daily News Op-Ed describing his own loan forgiveness experience, and a recent update from Forbes describing $8.1 billion forgiven so far.

If your organization is a nonprofit or government agency, all of your staff are eligible for federal loan forgiveness. If you are a membership association with nonprofit or government agency members - all of their staff are eligible.

And you are the single best credible messenger to let them know.

(And don’t forget to get your own loans forgiven! Check out our Borrowers guide here.)

Beyond that, an employer’s role in this process is 3 simple, straightforward steps.

Step 1: Awareness.

Help the PSLF.nyc Campaign reach every single employee at your organization or your partners’ organizations.

A. Send the email pasted below to all your staff, members, and organization partners, ASAP. Over the past few months we’ve learned that this email is the single best way to raise awareness - and versions have been sent more than 1 million times! It works!

B. Print and distribute our flyer in English and in Spanish.

C. Share our social media toolkit with your social media team - ask them to promote weekly until 10/31.

Step 2: Access.

Ensure that all staff have what they need to apply to the PSLF program.

Send your Tax ID (EIN) to all staff, so they don’t need to find their W-2. They’ll need it for their application.
Sign the US government’s Employer Certification Form promptly, legibly, and with a cursive signature as required by the PSLF program.

Step 3: Support.

You do not need to become a student debt expert.

If your staff have questions, simply send them here to PSLF.nyc and they’ll get the support they need.

Template Email for Staff / Members / Partners

SUBJECT: Many of our staff and partners will have student loans forgiven by October 31st! Can you? FREE 30 MINUTE TOOL

After 14 years with a deeply flawed system, we finally have the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program we need. Because of a special US Department of Education program related to the COVID crisis, 5 million Americans are eligible to have all their student loans erased. 211,000 have already had an average of $60,000+ forgiven!

It's pretty wonderful to see people online celebrating their total loan forgiveness! Check it out here or here or here or here.

Loan forgiveness is available to anyone who works in government or nonprofit - and while a borrower must have worked for 10 years to have their loans fully forgiven, even borrowers with fewer than 10 years must take certain steps right now.

But the fix is temporary and only lasts until October 31, 2022.

NOTE: Recent news reports about loan forgiveness are mostly about a totally separate program that might include a blanket forgiveness of up to $20,000. These plans have not been implemented and there are already lawsuits. The PSLF Waiver remains the most certain path to loan forgiveness for most government and nonprofit workers.

We are proud to partner with the PSLF.nyc and PSLF.us Campaigns, a coalition of nonprofits, government agencies and labor unions, to spread the word. Many of our colleagues are already working through the process.

All loan holders should start with the government's 20 minute Help Tool StudentAid.gov/PSLF to see if you are eligible.

NOTE: In order to advertise that other new $20k loan program, the government put up a big announcement web page in front of the PSLF Help Tool! After clicking the Help Tool link, you might need to click “Not Right Now” to go through to the PSLF page!

After trying the tool if you have more questions, check out this great new FAQ or the 30-Minute PSLF Self Service Tool that walks any borrower through the necessary steps to meet the October 31 deadline in just half an hour.

If you get really stuck, PSLF.us also offers live online support at PSLF.us/get-support