When you choose to consolidate your Direct loans to pursue PSLF, your new progress will be the weighted average of your previous payments made on all Direct Loans.
Borrowers will receive a weighted average of existing qualifying payments toward PSLF when they consolidate their Direct Loans. For example, a borrower with 60 qualifying payments on Direct Loan with a balance of $30,000 who consolidates their loan with another Direct Loan with a balance of $30,000 with 0 qualifying payments will have a new payment count of 30 payments. The weighted average will take into account the amount of payments on each loan as well as the current balance on each loan.
If you have Direct loans and do not work for an eligible employer for PSLF, you will not receive the weighted average for IDR Forgiveness, and your progress will reset when you consolidate. We do not recommend consolidating Direct loans if you are not pursuing PSLF.
FFEL loans and Perkins loans are NOT eligible for the weighted average and any payments made on either type of these loans will NOT count towards PSLF or IDR forgiveness. Payments will reset when you consolidate this type of loan. If you have FFEL/Perkins and Direct loans, we recommend that you do NOT consolidate the loans together so your Direct loan payment count does not reset.