60D Comment by MA Attorney General

THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS
OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
ONE ASHBURTON PLACE
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02108

(617) 727-2200
www.mass.gov/ago

July 11, 2023
The Honorable Miguel Cardona
United States Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue, SW
Washington, D.C. 20202
Beth Grebeldinger
United States Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue, SW
Washington, D.C. 20202
Re: Docket ID number ED- 2023-SCC-0079
Dear Secretary Cardona and Ms. Grebeldinger,
We are writing to provide comments on the Public Service Loan Forgiveness ("PSLF") form
proposed by the U.S. Department of Education ("ED"). As you know, the PSLF Program was
revised during the Negotiated Rulemaking process in 2021, resulting in new regulations codified
at 34 CFR § 685.219, which became effective on July 1, 2023. Concurrent with these new
regulations, ED implemented the ability for borrowers and employers to digitally sign and
submit PSLF forms electronically through the PSLF Help Tool. The PSLF form was redesigned
to comport with the new regulations, encourage the use of the new electronic signature option,
and align the form's instructions with the online user experience.
We commend ED's efforts to simplify and improve the PSLF regulations and implement an
electronic signature process for the PSLF form. However, to ensure that borrowers can access
the full potential of PSLF, we believe that additional revisions to the form will reduce borrower
and employer confusion, maintain consistency with the new regulations, and minimize burdens
on borrowers and employers.
1. Reduce Borrower and Employer Confusion

We believe there are opportunities throughout the proposed form to lessen the chances of
confusion for both borrowers and employers.

a. Revise Section 2, Borrower Request.
We are concerned that the opening sentence of the proposed PSLF form does not adequately
clarify the distinction between qualifying for PSLF/TEPSLF versus qualifying for forgiveness
under PSLF/TEPSLF and may confuse the average reader. In our view, the sentence places
undue emphasis on whether borrowers and their loans qualify for PSLF/TEPSLF and should
instead be framed around whether borrowers have reached the number of qualifying payments
necessary to receive loan forgiveness. We suggest revising the opening sentence as follows:

Immediately following the opening sentence, borrowers may check a box to put their loans in
forbearance while their application is reviewed. Because prior versions of the PSLF form
required borrowers to check boxes in this section, and since the checkbox comes immediately
after the borrower request, we are concerned that borrowers may default to checking the box and
inadvertently request a forbearance, thereby depriving themselves of months that would
otherwise qualify for PSLF.1 We therefore suggest moving the forbearance request checkbox to
the bottom of the page, near the borrower's signature.
FSA Response: Thank you for your comment. This recommendation is a policy change outside
the scope of this information collection request.
No Change

b. Eliminate the full-time and part-time designation in Section 4, Question 5.
The new PSLF regulations have simplified the definition of full-time employment by adopting a
30 hours per week standard. However, in addition to requiring employers to certify the average
hours the employee worked, the proposed form still requires employers to also certify whether
employees are full or part-time. As ED is aware, employers have varying standards for what
constitutes full-time employment and many consider 30 hours per week to be part-time
employment. While the proposed PSLF form defines "full-time" for purposes of the PSLF
Program, employers and employees may miss this definition and incorrectly report employment
that meets the Program's full-time requirement as part-time. We are concerned that this could
not only deter eligible borrowers from pursuing PSLF but could also result in improper rejections
by the PSLF servicer.2 Requiring a full-time/part-time determination, on top of the calculation of
average hours per week, adds undesirable complexity to the form.
The PSLF form states that the period of forbearance will not count toward forgiveness; however, we ask ED to
consider, whether, since the forbearance offered while the application is pending is prospective and does not appear
to be the retroactive forbearance described in 34 CFR § 685.219 (e)(8), the prospective forbearance actually falls
under 34 CFR § 685.205 (b)(9), and therefore qualifies as an administrative forbearance that counts toward
forgiveness.
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To the extent that the full-time/part-time check boxes are maintained, they should not be used by the servicer to
determine whether employment is eligible; only the borrower's reported hours should be used.
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Provide complete instructions on how to calculate the average hours per week in Section 6.

To comport with the removal of the full-time/part-time determination and to provide complete
instructions on calculating the average number of hours per week, we propose expanding the
instruction in Section 6, Question 6 as follows:

FSA Response: Thank you for your comment. We will consider this in future form updates.
No Change

c. Clarify that only PSLF forms completed and submitted through the PSLF
Help Tool can be e-signed and submitted online at studentaid.gov/pslf in
Section 6.
As currently worded, the instruction in Section 6 creates the misimpression that borrowers can
submit their manually signed PSLF forms at Studentaid.gov/pslf. We suggest revising the
instruction as follows:

FSA Response: Thank you for your comment. We have updated language on the form.

d. Reword and supplement the instructions in Section 3.
The first instruction is aimed at encouraging borrowers to complete their PSLF form through the
PSLF Help Tool, but the last sentence doesn't provide adequate instruction or guidance on what
will happen if borrowers use the PSLF Help Tool and may therefore be confusing. We suggest
revising the instruction as follows:

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FSA Response: Thank you for your comment. We have revised the instructions to address your
comment.

To account for the fact that borrowers are always certifying past employment, and must often
submit multiple forms for a single employer due to breaks in employment or changes to
employment status, we also propose changing the second instruction as follows:

FSA Response: Thank you for your comment, we are not recommending any change at this
time.
No Change

We believe this instruction is particularly important given that employers cannot presently add
employment periods or new PSLF forms when e-signing forms through the PSLF Help Tool.
e. Simplify the instructions for Section 6, Question 4.
As worded, we are concerned that the instructions for entering the employment or certification
start and end date may be confusing and too long. They also contain references to Question 5,
which we have proposed eliminating. We therefore suggest the following revisions, which
include reordering parts of the existing text for clarity:
Employment or Certification Begin Date

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Employment or Certification End Date
Enter the date that you:

FSA Response: Thank you for your comment. This recommendation is a policy change outside
the scope of this information collection request.
No Change

2. Maintain Consistency with the Regulations
We believe the proposed form should be changed in several ways to better comport with the new
PSLF regulations.
a. Resolve problems with the definition of "Full-Time" in Sections 7 and 9.
The proposed form's definition of "Full Time" is problematic for two reasons. First, it appears
to be inappropriately tied to whether the employer considers an 8-month employee to be
employed during the 12-month period, which is beyond the regulation's requirements.3 Second,
as drafted, it inappropriately excludes borrowers who do not work under a contract. As stated
above, we have proposed incorporating parts of the definition of "Full-Time" into the
instructions for calculating average hours per week, with adjustments to comport with the
regulation, as shown below.

These problems also arise in Section 9, Full-Time Employment, which again ties the full­
time standard to whether the employer grants credit for a full year's worth of employment
and whether the position is under contract. We therefore suggest the following revisions:

FSA Response: Thank you for your comment. This recommendation is a policy change outside
the scope of this information collection request.
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No Change
Per 34 CFR § 685.219 (b), "Full-Time" means: (i) Working in qualifying employment in one or more jobs (A)
A minimum average of 30 hours per week during the period being certified, (B) A minimum of 30 hours per week
throughout a contractual or employment period ofat least 8 months in a 12-month period, such as elementary and
secondary school teachers and professors and instructors, in higher education, in which case the borrower is
deemed to have worked full time; or (C) The equivalent of 30 hours per week as determined by multiplying each
credit or contact hour taught per week by at least 3.35 in non-tenure track employment at an institution of higher
education.
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b. Do not apply payments beyond the 120th qualifying payment to other
outstanding loans, as described in Section 9.
The proposed PSLF form states that if borrowers request forgiveness and elect forbearance, this
forbearance period will not count toward forgiveness. In our experience, it has often taken many
months for PSLF applications to be approved, leaving borrowers in the position of either
continuing to make payments or risking otherwise qualifying months. For borrowers who elect
to continue making payments, Section 9, Other Important Information, indicates that payments
made after the 120th qualifying payment will either be refunded or applied to the borrower's
other outstanding loans. If the refund is applied to other outstanding loans, we are concerned
that it may not be applied toward the borrower's qualifying PSLF payment count (i.e., if the
refund is treated as a lump sum payment and covers payments beyond the borrower's next IDR
recertification date, the payments beyond the IDR recertification date will not count toward
forgiveness).4 The proposed regulations contain no indication that ED should apply refunds to
other federal loans. To avoid refunds being applied in a manner for which PSLF borrowers do
not receive PSLF credit, refunds should be provided directly to borrowers in all cases.5
FSA Response: Thank you for your comment. This recommendation is a policy change
outside the scope of this information collection request.
No Change

3. Reduce Burdens for Borrowers and Employers
Completing PSLF forms can be time consuming for borrowers and employers. Due to changes
in work hours, non FMLA leaves, and extensive work histories, employers must often complete
multiple PSLF forms for a single employee. For example, the Massachusetts Human Resources
Division has infonned our Office that it has completed as many as seventeen forms for a single
employee, and routinely completes multiple forms to capture a single employee's employment
history. As outlined below, we believe there are several ways to help mitigate these burdens, and
potentially, ED's costs in processing PSLF forms.

a. Add an instruction not to list employment occurring before the Oct. 1, 2007
start date of the PSLF Program in Section 4, Question 4.
We suggest including an instruction in Section 4, Question 4 that only employment occurring
after October 1, 2007 should be certified. For example, Question 4 could be revised as follows:
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FSA Response: Thank you for your comment. This recommendation is a policy change
outside the scope of this information collection request.
No Change
34 CFR § 685.219 (c)(2)(iii)
Additionally, it is unclear how the refund would be applied (e.g., to principal or outstanding interest), and whether
it would cause due dates to advance and disrupt auto debits or payment schedules.

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This change could be accompanied by modifications in Section 6, Question 4, as shown in (l)(f)
above, to help clarify that only employment occurring after the October 1, 2007 start date of the
PSLF Program can be certified and counted toward PSLF.
b. Add an instruction to round average hours per week to the nearest whole
number in Section 4, Question 6 and Section 6, Question 6.
Full-time Massachusetts state employees work 37.5 hours per week. However, the PSLF Help
Tool does not allow borrowers or employers to enter decimals, rendering the PSLF Help Tool
and e-signature function unusable for tens of thousands of Massachusetts state employees and
creating significant administrative burdens. Since the employer is required to certify that "the
information in Section 4 is true, complete, and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief'
both the PSLF Help Tool and the proposed PSLF form should contain an instruction to round to
the nearest whole number.6 This could be accomplished as follows:

FSA Response: Thank you for your comment. We have modified the instructions to clarify
how to enter non-whole numbers.
Similarly, Section 6, Question 6 should explain that average hours per week should be rounded
up to the nearest whole number.
c. For forms generated via the PSLF Help Tool, enable employers to make
changes to all fields in Section 4 and generate additional PSLF forms.
When the PSLF Help Tool is used to generate a PSLF form, the borrower provides the
information requested in Section 4. However, in our experience, employers must often correct
the information provided by the borrower. Multiple Human Resources Departments in the
Commonwealth have informed our Office that it is their routine practice to either (1) instruct
employees to leave it to the employer to complete Section 4 or (2) fully replace the Section 4
information submitted by the employee. As explained above, these employers must often also
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generate multiple PSLF forms to accurately capture the employee's employment history. These
practices, born out of necessity, are largely incompatible with use of the PSLF Help Tool's e­
signature function. While some of the fields in Section 4 are presently editable by the employer,
the inability to edit all the fields, along with the employer's inability to generate multiple PSLF
forms, will likely hamper use of the PSLF Help Tool's e-signature function, and should be
addressed.
FSA Response: Thank you for your comment. This recommendation is a policy change outside
the scope of this information collection request.
No Change

d. Clarify that dates that are not in the MM/DDNYYY format will still be
accepted in Section 6.
Our office has previously observed loan servicers arbitrarily rejecting loan discharge applications
based on date formatting. While Section 6 contains an instruction to enter dates in
MM/DD/YYYY format, it should also clarify that while this date format is preferred, forms will
not be rejected due to use of a different date format.
FSA Response: Thank you for your comment. It is necessary to establish a date standard for
accurate processing. However, the PSLF servicer has received guidance to not reject forms
when a non-standard date format can be clearly interpreted.
No Change
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This guidance needs to be included on the PSLF form and not on a separate website.

e. Do not request full social security numbers or put them on every page.
Borrowers and employers need to email PSLF forms to one another as part of the process of
completing them. However, many employers and employees have valid concerns about emailing
documents that contain full social security numbers. As such, the proposed form should only
solicit the last four digits of the borrower's social security number, and these last four digits
should not appear on every page of the form.
FSA Response: Thank you for your comment. This recommendation is a policy change outside
the scope of this information collection request, but we will consider for future updates.
No Change

***

We commend ED for the substantial improvements it has made to the PSLF Program and are
optimistic that they will enable more public service workers to access the full potential of PSLF.
We appreciate ED's consideration of our comments.
Sincerely,
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Arwen Thoman
Student Loan Ombudsman & Deputy Director
Insurance & Financial Services Division
Office of the Massachusetts Attorney General
One Ashburton Place, 18th Floor
Boston, MA 02108
Arwen.Thoman@mass.gov

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