A Parent PLUS loan, or direct PLUS loan, is a form of federal student aid in which a parent borrower may take out a loan to cover the remaining costs of their child's education. When it comes time to begin repayment, you may have some options in regard to forgiveness.
Federal Parent PLUS loans are not eligible for the Teacher Loan Forgiveness (TLF) program; however, they may be eligible for forgiveness through the employment-based Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program.
Legally speaking, since the Parent PLUS Loans that you took out on behalf of your child or children belong to you, any forgiveness eligibility will be based on your employment. As a quick recap, you must meet the following criteria to qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness:
- You must work for a government agency or for certain types of nonprofit organizations; work at least 30 hours per week for that agency or organization.
- You must have Federal Direct Loans (or consolidate other federal students loans to qualify). FFEL loans are not acceptable, nor are private student loans.
- You must repay your loans on an income-driven repayment plan (IDR); and make -120 qualifying payments (Roughly ten years; they do not have to be consecutive).
Click Here: https://bysavi.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005058474-What-is-Public-Service-Loan-Forgiveness-PSLF-and-how-do-I-know-if-I-m-eligible for more information about these requirements.
Technically Parent PLUS loans do not need to be consolidated to be eligible for PSLF, they can be paid under the Standard 10-year repayment plan. In most cases this plan will have the loans paid off by the time you would receive forgiveness. The other option is to consolidate it to a Direct Consolidation loan type. (Think of it more as a conversion.) You'll also need to enroll it into an income-driven repayment plan, specifically the Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR) plan. Income-Contingent repayment bases the monthly payment on 20% of the borrower's discretionary income and is un-capped (no maximum monthly payment ceiling).
You can read more about consolidation here: https://bysavi.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/16168129717267-Overview-of-Consolidation