Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Good News for Non-Profit Employees

Although, it's just typical: I totally don't qualify for this one.

Student Loan Forgiveness for 501(c)(3)s and Public Sector Employees
On September 27, 2007, President Bush signed into law the College Cost Reduction and Access Act (HR2669).

In addition to a number of provisions providing financial and debt repayment support to current orpast college students, the bill establishes a loan forgiveness program for individuals working for 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations or in government.

The loan forgiveness program allows the Secretary ofEducation to forgive 1/10th of the balance of federal student loans held by 501(c)(3) or public sector employees for each year of the repayment period in which their income was less than $65,000. This program applies to all public service employees who:

*Have not defaulted on their loans
*Have made monthly payments on their loans for 120 consecutive months after October 1, 2007
*Were employed full-time with a 501(c)(3) or in the public sector during the entire 120 months during which they made their payments

The loan forgiveness program is not retroactive in the sense that, if you have been making payments for 10 years or more, that payment history and schedule does not qualify you for loan forgiveness.

However, it is retroactive in the sense that any debt incurred prior to the development of this program is eligible for forgiveness so long as you meet the qualifications listed above and have a current debt repayment schedule that is longer than 10 years.

The Department of Education is currently working out rules and regulations for implementing this program. The current timeline is for those regulations to be published in a few months.

These regulations will answer more specific questions, such as: what payment schedule will allow individuals to qualify, the process for obtaining loan forgiveness, and other miscellaneous administrative issues. Visit http://www.ed.gov/ for more information or to obtain the specific regulations when they are made public.

No comments: