Promised Student Loan Forgiveness for Military Members Denied for Over 90% of Borrowers
Hugh T. Ferguson
April 27, 2021
While the federal government looks toward implementing a host of higher education policies as a means of recovering from the pandemic — ranging from debt forgiveness, to increased postsecondary funding and infrastructure needs — a watchdog report has found that 94% of eligible military service members and civilian employees have been denied loan forgiveness through an existing program.
According to a recent report conducted by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), of the 5,180 service members and civilian employees who were eligible and applied for loan forgiveness through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, only 287 borrowers received the benefit, with more service members likely to be eligible.
The long beguiled PSLF program has offered a mere fraction of relief to all eligible borrowers, with GAO finding in 2019 that 99% of all PSLF applications submitted by borrowers have been denied.
The Department of Defense (DOD) is the largest federal provider of student loan repayments, distributing more than $22 million in student loan repayments for 2,775 personnel in the 2018 calendar year.
