Education Department Says Student Loan Forgiveness Application Has Backlog

People who borrowed money to go to college are waiting for answers about their federal Student Loan Forgiveness applications, but there is reportedly a lengthy backlog of more than 643,000 applications pending, per CBNC.

Officials from the Trump Administration announced on April 22, 2026, that there are currently 553,966 student borrowers who have requests pending for an income-driven repayment plan, and there are 89,720 borrowers who are waiting for replies to Public Service Loan Forgiveness buyback applications.

According to Forbes, not only is there a backlog, but there is no estimated timeline for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness applications to receive answers.

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program allows periods of nonpayment where the PSLF discharges federal student loans for qualified borrowers. Borrowers who have been employed by a qualifying nonprofit or government job for 10 years and have made payments can apply for discharge, or PSLF Buyback.

"The buyback opportunity is only available to you if you already have 120 months of qualifying employment, and buying back months in forbearance or deferment would result in forgiveness under PSLF or Temporary Expanded PSLF (TEPSLF)."

However, the program isn't going as planned, and the Department of Education noted that as of March, the backlog has grown from 49,000 last year to nearly 90,000.

Of the 4,180 PSLF Buyback applications received in February, only 2,520 applications were processed. The Education Department also processed 12,640 borrowers for student loan forgiveness applications under the regular PSLF program in February.

The way things are being processed now, it could be at least two years before the PSLF Buyback backlog is finished.

There are currently 88,170 PSLF Buyback applications in the backlog, which is reportedly 5,000 more applications than in January. However, there is no information for borrowers about exactly how long they will have to wait for an answer to their loan forgiveness or loan-repayment-plan applications.

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness backlog has resulted in approximately nine million student loan borrowers defaulting on their loans as of last December, according to Mark Kantrowitz, an expert in higher education, and 42 percent of borrowers claim that the monthly student loan payments make it more difficult to pay for housing and food every month.

The delays in processing the backlog are reportedly partly due to Trump ending the SAVE plan, which is an income-driven repayment plan set by former President Joe Biden. The program allowed borrowers to make lower payments before eventually forgiving the loans. Borrowers were forced to choose another income-driven repayment plan and were only given 90 days to do so. At least seven million people are reportedly still on the SAVE plan, which adds to the backlog.

Borrowers will be given just 90 days to move their student loans to another income-driven repayment plan, and they will need to submit a formal application to do so. More than seven million borrowers remain in the SAVE plan, dwarfing the current application backlog, per Forbes.