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 for more information about these requirements.
In order to make a Parent Plus loan meet all of these requirements, you must first consolidate it to a Direct Consolidation loan type. (Think of it more as a Conversion) Unfortunately, Parent Plus loans are not eligible without consolidation. 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).
Please note: If your loans require consolidation, any previous payments or eligible employment will NOT count toward PSLF. This means that you would need to pay for 10 more years on an Income Driven Repayment plan for these specific loans before applying for forgiveness.