If you’re struggling with paying off your loan debt, student loan forgiveness programs could save you. There are many various student loan forgiveness programs out there for people who work in public service, education, health care, military, and other fields. Some states are even helping debt-saddled graduates repay their loans. On that note, nurses, teacher, those who work for the military are quite lucky. Although they all have specific and strict qualification requirements, we will try to cover all the information you will need. In this article, we dug into little-known forgiveness programs for professions as mentioned above.
Forgiveness programs for Nurses
Nurses still have access to the best student loan forgiveness advantages, with no other job offering easier access to forgiveness programs.
While assessing your options, keep in mind that Federal forgiveness programs are usually the easiest to access. They also offer the best and most beneficial packages. However, state-based forgiveness programs are also good, and some of the smaller private loan forgiveness programs for nurses even provide substantial amounts of money. It is just a little hard to be eligible for these programs. Because they do not accept many candidates each year.
The Nurse Corps Loan Repayment Program (NCLR) offers repayment up to 85% of your remaining student loans. Nurses, registered nurses (RNs) and advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs), and nurse teachers are eligible for NCLR.
There are a variety of Federally-funded Nursing Loan Forgiveness programs offer forgiveness benefits, they are:
1.The NURSE Corps Loan Repayment Program, 2.The Perkins, 3. Forgiveness Program For Nurses & LMTs, 4.The NHSC NURSE, 5. Corps Scholarship Program, 6.The Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, 7.The NHSC Loan Repayment Program, 8.The Non-Profit, 9.Employee Forgiveness Program, 10.The Government Employee Student Loan Forgiveness Program, 11. The Military Forgiveness Program.
Each of these programs provides substantial amounts to nurses who qualify for their programs. The listed above programs may overlap with a significant population of nurses. Here also includes forgiveness programs for Non-Profit Employees, Government Employees of any level (Federal, State or Local), 501(c)(3)’s, and Military Personnel from any department of the Armed Forces.
Eligibility Requirements
To be qualified for one of these programs you have to work in a Critical Shortage Facility in a demanded area. Or teach in an adequate public or private nonprofit school of nursing at least two years.
Work at a minimum 32 hours a week as an RN or APRN or as a full-time nurse faculty member at a qualified nursing school.
You may receive payment up to 60% of your remaining debt after two years of service. If you work an additional year, you will get another 25% of loan repayment.
Teacher Loan Forgiveness Program
Loan forgiveness program for teaching student is for a full-time employee in state elementary or secondary schools who has five consecutive years of work experience. It can differ from the subject field of the teachers; for example, the most low-income elementary school teachers receive up to $5,000 and secondary school teachers could receive up to $17,500 in loan forgiveness. For the college students who are planning to teach full-time for at least four years, some programs provide up to $4000 for a year.
Being qualified for this loan forgiveness program:
- You must not have had an excellent balance on Direct Loans or Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program loans or on the date that you obtained a Direct Loan or FFEL Program loan after 1st of October 1998;
- You are required to be a full-time employee, as mentioned above, with work experience of five academic years. At least one of those years should be after the 1997–98 academic year;
- You must work at a state-funded elementary or secondary school, or educational institutions that serve low-income students.
Perkins Loan Cancellation
Federal Perkins Loan cancellation is based on qualified employment or eligible volunteer service and the length of time that you were in such a position. Discharge of your Perkins Loan may occur under some instances.
Application for the Perkins Loan cancellation or discharge must be made to the university that made the loan or to the university’s servicer who is engaged in Perkins Loan. The school or its servicer can provide all forms and instructions which is relevant to your type of cancellation.
What are terms or qualifications:
You meet the eligibility requirement for discharge of up to 100% of a Federal Perkins Loan:
- if you have served full-time in a public or nonprofit elementary or secondary school system as a teacher in a primary or secondary school helping students from low-income families;
- specialists, including teachers of infants, toddlers, children, or young people with disabilities;
- teacher in particular fields of study like mathematics, science, foreign languages, or bilingual education, etc.
In addition to this list, there are many other forgiveness programs that you can take advantage of in covering your student loans.
Military Forgiveness Programs
There are indeed many Military Student Loan Forgiveness Programs, one for each service branch. They are all technically referred to as the Military College Loan Repayment Program or shortly CLRP.
Each Service Branch gets to settle their particular forgiveness amount. But the Army offers the maximum forgiveness, which has historically been limited to $65,000 in lifetime forgiveness of your loans.
However, the College Loan Repayment Program only available to new military personnel, who have no prior military service, and willing to agree to enlist for a certain period.
To take assistance from CLRP, you absolutely must have the amount of payment mentioned in your service contract unless you’re almost certainly never going to receive them.
Other requirements for eligibility
You may receive up to $65,000 in student loan forgiveness assistance if you join the Army for the first time.
You’ll agree to register for a minimum period. It is usually six years, but you’ll start receiving forgiveness for each year of your service contract.
Most branches provide a set amount per year or a percentage of your remaining loan balance.
If you are can not complete your service agreement, you may end up having to pay off whatever amount of forgiveness you received.
Each military branch gets to set their forgiveness benefits, and most of them are still offering significant assistance this year. However, these benefits are only accessible to people who have never served in the military before and are signing up for the first time. They must be written in your enrollment contract, or you won’t be able to use them.
Remember that this kind of forgiveness is taxed, but this makes it at least a little more convenient; each year when you qualify for your forgiveness program, your branch will send the payment directly to the Education Department. They’ll withhold a percentage of the amount they are sending on your behalf to account for taxes.
Here is the complete list of Military Loan forgiveness programs that are available in 2019:
Military Student Loan Forgiveness Benefits, 2.The Military College Loan Repayment Program, 3.The Army Repayment Program, 4. The Navy Repayment Program, 5. The National Guard Student Loan Repayment Program, 6. The Air Force College Loan Repayment Program, 7.The Coast Guard Loan Repayment Program.
