一项旨在帮助借款人赶上还款的联邦计划因人员削减和申请激增而陷入困境。
A federal program intended to help borrowers catch up on payments has been bogged down by staffing cuts and a surge in applications.
他投入了获得资格所需的服务年数。但伯曼还欠了所需的120笔贷款中的6笔，因为联邦政府对他的贷款进行了限制，而法院则裁定他的还款计划“节省有价值的教育”的合法性。
He put in the years of service needed to qualify. But Berman was short six of the required 120 loan payments because the federal government placed his loans in forbearance while the courts decided the legality of his repayment plan, Saving on a Valuable Education.
一项名为PSLF回购的联邦计划本应让伯曼一次性付款以迎头赶上。他于2025年2月向教育部门提交了申请。伯曼仍在等待回应。
A federal program, known as PSLF Buyback, was supposed to let Berman make a lump-sum payment to catch up. He submitted an application to the Education Department in February 2025. Berman is still waiting for a response.
该回购计划于2023年在拜登政府领导下创建，为借款人提供了一个机会，以弥补在寻求公共服务贷款赦免方面损失的时间。PSLF取消了政府和非营利组织员工服务10年并每月支付120笔贷款后的教育债务，但在容忍或推迟方面花费的时间通常不计算在内。
Created in 2023 under the Biden administration, the buyback program gives borrowers a chance to recover lost time in their pursuit of Public Service Loan Forgiveness. PSLF cancels the education debt of government and nonprofit employees after 10 years of service and 120 monthly loan payments, but time spent in forbearance or deferment typically doesn’t count.
据教育部称，伯曼等公务员积压了约82，000份PSLF回购计划申请。人们等待该部门的回应已经等了数月，有时甚至数年，该部门最初表示审查将需要45个工作日。
There is a backlog of roughly 82,000 applications for the PSLF Buyback program from public servants like Berman, according to the Education Department. People have waited months, and in some cases years, for a response from the department, which initially said the review would take 45 business days.
延误让许多借款人陷入困境和不确定：是否继续还款，是否可以换工作，或者是否在背负数万美元债务的情况下承担抵押贷款--联邦政府承诺偿还这些债务以换取他们的公共服务。
The delays have left many borrowers stuck and unsure: whether to keep paying, whether they can switch jobs or whether to take on a mortgage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt hanging over their head — debt the federal government promised to clear in exchange for their public service.
“这就像置身于炼狱，”现居皇后区的44岁伯曼说。“你只是不停地等待、等待，盼望那封邮件能到来。” 回购计划允许公职人员追溯性地一次性支付一笔款项，以覆盖他们本应缴纳、从而获得宽限期资格的金额。只有拥有10年合格工作经历的人才能申请。如果教育部批准请求，会发送一份协议，详细列明必须在90天内支付的总金额。
“It’s like being in a purgatory,” said Berman, 44, who lives in Queens. “You’re just waiting and waiting, hoping that email will come.”Buyback lets public servants retroactively make a lump-sum payment covering what they would have paid to get credit for the forbearance period. Only people who have 10 years of qualifying employment can apply. If the Education Department approves the request, it sends an agreement detailing the total amount that must be paid within 90 days.
该计划启动初期，教育部联邦学生援助办公室的工作人员全权负责处理申请。由于工作人员必须人工审核记录，流程耗时较长，但他们大多能跟上提交的申请量。
When the program started, staff within the department’s Office of Federal Student Aid were entirely responsible for processing applications. It was time-consuming as staff had to manually review records, but they mostly kept pace with the flow of submissions.
据三位熟悉审核流程但不被允许公开发言的人士透露，随着申请量激增且特朗普政府削减了部门人员，情况发生了变化。原本繁琐的流程变成了漫长的煎熬。
Things changed as the volume of applications soared and the Trump administration cut staff at the department, according to three people familiar with the review process who were not permitted to speak publicly. The already tedious process turned into a slog.
参加“节省计划”（SAVE plan，拜登时期推出的一项提供低额月供的项目）的借款人纷纷提交申请。2024年，在共和党主导的多州对该计划发起挑战期间，教育部暂停了“节省计划”参保人的还款。那些宽限期月份不计入公共服务贷款豁免（PSLF），导致大量“节省计划”参保人申请回购计划。
Applications streamed in from borrowers enrolled in the Save plan — a Biden-era program that offered low monthly payments. In 2024, the department postponed payments for Save enrollees while Republican-led states challenged the program. Those months in forbearance did not count toward PSLF, which led scores of borrowers on the Save plan to apply for the buyback program.
据美国教师联合会（AFT）去年因贷款豁免和回购申请停滞提起的诉讼法庭记录显示，2025年5月至7月，教育部平均每月收到10,743份申请，但仅平均处理2,939份。
From May to July of 2025, the Education Department received an average of 10,743 applications, but only processed an average of 2,939, according to court records from an ongoing lawsuit filed last year by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) over stalled cancellation and buyback applications.
几个月过去了，教育部毫无音讯。德基每三周致电联邦机构一次，但无人能告知其申请状态。等待10个月后，他向该部门投诉，但对其申请状态依然一无所知。教育部未回应有关延误的问题。
Months went by without a word from the department. Durkee called the federal agency every three weeks, but no one could provide an update on the status of his request. After 10 months of waiting, he filed a complaint with the department, but remains in the dark about the status of his application. The Education Department did not respond to questions about the delays.
“这让人很恼火，因为我想继续前行，也许去从事暖通空调或管道工等技术行业，”Durkee说。“我的职业倦怠感很强，但我不想在不了解贷款会怎样的情况下就转行。”随着数千份回购申请持续涌向教育部，该联邦机构在7月求助于学生贷款服务公司。三位官员表示，服务商正在处理积压案件，但部分遇到了编码错误，导致进度放缓。他们称这些错误现已解决。
“It’s irritating because I would like to move on and maybe pursue a trade like HVAC or plumbing,” Durkee said. “There is so much burnout in my profession, but I don’t want to make a switch without knowing what’s going to happen to my loans.”As thousands of buyback applications continued to flow to the Education Department, the federal agency turned to student loan servicing companies for help in July. Servicers are working through the backlog, but some encountered coding errors that slowed them down, said the three officials. They said the errors have since been resolved.
学生贷款顾问协会主席Betsy Mayotte表示，近几周她看到成功的回购请求有所增加，但主要集中在等待回复超过600天的人群中。
Betsy Mayotte, president of The Institute of Student Loan Advisors, said she has seen an uptick in successful buyback requests in recent weeks, but mostly among people who have been waiting more than 600 days for a response.
教育部表示，8月处理了约2500个案件，这与一年前AFT诉讼中报告的速度基本持平。尽管如此，待处理申请数量呈下降趋势，自4月以来下降了近7%，那是教育部上次在AFT诉讼中报告数据的时间。
The Education Department said it processed about 2,500 cases in August, which is largely on par with the pace reported in the AFT lawsuit a year ago. Still, the number of pending applications is trending down, declining nearly 7 percent since April, the last time the department reported numbers in the AFT lawsuit.
特朗普政府对回购计划实施了限制，这也可能限制未来的申请。教育部表示，其新的还款援助计划和分级标准还款计划不符合该计划资格。由于这些是新借款人唯一的还款选择，该部门实际上已将他们排除在PSLF回购之外。
The Trump administration has imposed restrictions on the buyback program that could also limit future applications. The Education Department said its new Repayment Assistance Plan and Tiered Standard Repayment Plan are ineligible for the program. Since those are the only repayment options for new borrowers, the department has effectively cut them off from the PSLF buyback.
随着回购请求仍悬而未决，皇后区心理学家Berman决定另寻贷款减免途径。3月，他退出了SAVE计划，加入了一个较旧的收入驱动还款计划，导致其每月学生贷款还款额从500美元增至1450美元。
With his buyback request still up in the air, Berman, the psychologist in Queens, decided to take another route to loan forgiveness. In March, he left the Save plan and enrolled in an older income-driven repayment program that increased his $500 monthly student loan payment to $1,450.
在新的还款计划中花费六个月意味着支付的费用是回购计划中的三倍，但伯曼表示，这笔费用是值得的。他于8月份支付了第120笔款项，并提交了PSLF申请，但由于报告系统延迟，教育部尚未支付款项，这让伯曼陷入了新的困境。
Spending six months in the new repayment plan meant paying triple what he would have in the buyback program, but Berman said it was worth the expense to be done with his loans. He made his 120th payment in August and submitted his PSLF application, but the Education Department has yet to post the payment because of delays in its reporting system — leaving Berman stuck in a new limbo.
“这就像每天的折磨。我每天都会检查我的学生资助账户，一天多次。我不敢相信我又回到了这里，”他说。
“It’s been like daily torture. I check my student aid account every single day, multiple times a day. I can’t believe I’m back here again,” he said.