If you meet all the requirements of Teacher Loan Forgiveness (TLF) but have not yet completed your 5 year teaching requirement, TLF Forbearance might be a good way to maximize your forgiveness amount.
TLF Forbearance allows teachers to put their loan payments on pause while they are completing their year(s) of teaching service for TLF. This essentially means that you will not have to make any additional payments in the case that your TLF award would cover the remaining balance you have on your federal student loans.
Requirements for TLF Forbearance:
-
Aside from the 5 years of teaching, you must meet all the other requirements of Teacher Loan Forgiveness (see this article for TLF Eligibility Requirements)
-
Your total loan amount plus interest must not exceed your anticipated TLF award
-
Your request for TLF Forbearance must be within 60 days of your next payment due date - this means that you cannot request this if your loans are already in a forbearance or deferment
How does TLF Forbearance work?
-
You can request TLF forbearance any year that you are pursuing the Teacher Loan Forgiveness program
-
The request can be submitted at any point in the year, even in the middle of a school year
-
Each borrower is only allotted 5 years worth of TLF forbearance total
-
This forbearance does not need to be consecutive, but you get five years maximum
-
The forbearance request is for a 12 month period, so it does include summer months
-
Even though the forbearance application says "academic year," you will want to request the forbearance through the calendar year
What about interest?
-
Like a general forbearance, interest will continue to accrue while this forbearance is in effect
-
If your interest grows to the point that it exceeds your TLF award, you will be responsible to make payments on interest only
-
If you stop teaching or forget to renew your TLF forbearance annually, your interest will be capitalized (added to the principal balance of your loans)
-
This means you should overlap your TLF forbearance requests! For example, if your first teaching year is 09/01/2020 - 08/31/2021, then next year's request should be for 08/01/2021 - 07/31/2022
-
If you stop teaching at a Title I school, you must inform your servicer
If you believe you qualify for this forbearance now, a TLF Forbearance request form can be found HERE and you can send a completed copy directly to your loan servicer for review.