The Biden-Harris Administration continues its federal loan system overhaul with the Unified Service and Data Solution (USDS): a new platform where borrowers can manage their repayment process, access their loan information with a simplified log-in process, and FSA can implement “increased oversight” of loan servicers. In the coming months, FSA also plans to take ownership of PSLF, TEACH, and TPD programs away from designated servicers in order to streamline each program through the Studentaid.gov website.
POSTED DATE: April 02, 2024
AUTHOR: Federal Student Aid
ELECTRONIC ANNOUNCEMENT ID: LOANS-24-05
SUBJECT: Updates to Borrowers’ Federal Student Loan and Grant Web Experience
This spring, the U.S. Department of Education’s office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) is improving how borrowers manage and repay their federal student loans. These changes are part of a new loan servicing environment, known as the Unified Servicing and Data Solution (or USDS), that will improve the experience and repayment outcomes for approximately 38 million federal student loan borrowers. It will also enable FSA to provide increased oversight of loan servicers and to better safeguard borrowers’ personal information through higher cybersecurity standards.
New Loan Servicing Environment
The new loan servicing environment replaces the federal student loan servicers’ legacy contracts, which are due to expire and cannot be renewed. The new loan servicing environment will modernize and improve the borrower experience by
- providing borrowers with a more user-friendly and streamlined web experience, regardless of their servicer;
- increasing servicer accountability and incentivizing more support for at-risk borrowers to reduce loan delinquencies and defaults;
- allowing FSA to collect more and better data from loan servicers to provide improved borrower assistance;
- bringing loan servicers up to enhanced cybersecurity standards; and
- eventually centralizing all account management capabilities on StudentAid.gov.
In March 2024, borrowers began to see changes to their federal student loan servicers’ websites. All federal student loan servicer websites and email addresses have now changed from “.com” to “.gov.” In addition, the websites now include updated FSA branding. These updates can help borrowers distinguish authentic information about their federal student loans from scams.
Later in 2024, FSA will continue to implement the new loan servicing environment, providing additional improvements for borrowers. Most notably, FSA will launch a simplified log-in process in fall 2024. This will allow borrowers to use their StudentAid.gov account username and password to log in to both their servicer’s website and StudentAid.gov, so borrowers no longer have to manage multiple usernames and passwords. More information on this log-in process will be available later this year, but in the meantime, we recommend encouraging borrowers to ensure they can log in to StudentAid.gov using their StudentAid.gov account username and password combination (sometimes called an FSA ID) so that they can be prepared for this change.
Finally, as further improvements are implemented in the coming years, all functionality for managing and repaying federal student loans will eventually reside on StudentAid.gov, rather than on servicers’ websites, simplifying and streamlining the repayment process for borrowers.
PSLF, TEACH, and TPD Programs Managed on StudentAid.gov
Throughout this year, FSA is also implementing changes to how the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program, the Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grant Program, and the Total and Permanent Disability (TPD) Discharge Program are managed. By the end of 2024, these programs will no longer be managed through designated servicers. Instead, FSA is updating our systems and contact centers to streamline and fully manage these programs through StudentAid.gov.
Once these changes have been implemented, borrowers will be able to submit their PSLF, TEACH, and TPD forms and track their progress to forgiveness on StudentAid.gov. FSA’s contact center will also begin providing customer support for these programs.
FSA will transition the PSLF and TEACH programs beginning this spring and TPD will follow in the fall. As the PSLF and TEACH programs are transitioned, we will pause processing any forms for PSLF or TEACH Grants beginning on May 1, 2024. Borrowers can continue to submit PSLF and TEACH forms during this processing pause, but they will not be processed until the pause ends. Processing for PSLF forms will resume in July 2024 and processing for TEACH forms will resume in fall 2024.
More information about the new loan servicing environment and the changes to management of the PSLF, TEACH, and TPD programs is available on StudentAid.gov.
SOURCE: (LOANS-24-05) Updates to Borrowers’ Federal Student Loan and Grant Web Experience