Is Your PSLF Count Shrinking? Retiree Told 15 Payments No Longer Count

A retiree who was told his student loans had been satisfied under Public Service Loan Forgiveness now faces about 18 more months of roughly $470 monthly payments after 15 of his payments were reclassified as nonqualifying, Business Insider reported.

Donald Knierim, 71, took a pay cut at 60 to work for Metra, Chicago’s commuter railroad, partly because the job qualified for PSLF. He owed $62,000 on loans taken out to send his children to college.

In November 2025, his Federal Student Aid dashboard told him he had satisfied his obligation and no additional payments were required. He gave notice and retired.

Months later, he was told 15 payments that had counted toward forgiveness were now “non-qualifying” because they fell below the amount required under his income-driven repayment plan. The notice did not say what the correct amount was.

“I thought I was done, they gave me that notification that I was done, and then they clawed it back,” Knierim said.

He has held off on the new payments while he disputes the change, and he said his credit score has fallen more than 200 points. He was told a reconsideration request could take up to two months.

Department Cites Biden-Era Coding Errors

Knierim’s case is part of a broader rollback. The Education Department confirmed in August that it was lowering completed-payment counts for some PSLF borrowers, a change Politico first reported.

A department spokesperson said Federal Student Aid had found “multiple PSLF counter code errors stemming from changes implemented in May 2024 under the Biden Administration” that produced inaccurate payment counts for some borrowers.

The department has not said how many borrowers were affected. It has said it “remains committed to ensuring that every qualifying payment is properly credited to a borrower’s account.”

Some borrowers have lost more ground. Christina Quinones, who works in a Texas school district, saw her count fall from 118 qualifying payments to 98, two short of the 120 needed for forgiveness before the change.

In September, a coalition of 89 advocacy groups wrote to congressional committee leaders seeking an emergency oversight hearing. The letter said borrowers saw their PSLF credit “disappear overnight with little to no explanation.”

The coalition also said 25 percent of federal student loan borrowers are behind on a loan and more than 9 million are in default.

PSLF forgives remaining federal student debt for government and nonprofit workers after 10 years of qualifying payments.

On Oct. 21, the Justice Department dropped its appeals of rulings that struck down a Trump administration rule limiting which employers qualify, leaving current rules in place.

Bonnie Latreille, a Federal Student Aid official under former President Joe Biden, told Business Insider that borrowers can take complaints to the department’s ombudsman, and that a growing number of states have their own student loan ombudsmen.

Moneywise advised borrowers planning to retire or change careers after their final payment to wait for a documented discharge before making a move that cannot be undone.

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