President Obama has enacted legislature that will allow Direct Loan holders to have their loans forgiven after 10 years of eligible employment in Public Service and 120 payments made to their loans.
Public Service Loan ForgivenessThis benefit is for people who work in certain "public service" jobs in government and nonprofit 501©(3) organizations (for details see What are eligible jobs?). The program will forgive remaining federal student loan debt after 10 years of eligible employment and qualifying payments.
You may qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness if:
You have federal student loans in the Direct Loan program. Covered loans include Stafford, Grad PLUS, or Consolidation loans through the Direct Loan program.
If your federal loans are not in the Direct Loan program, you may be able to switch (see box on the right to find out more).
Your Direct loans originated before or after the loan forgiveness program was created, for either graduate or undergraduate study.
You work full time in an eligible job.
While working in an eligible job, you make qualifying payments for a total of 10 years (120 monthly payments which do not have to be consecutive). As long as you are in the Direct Loan program, these payments can be made through the Standard (10-year) repayment, Income Contingent Repayment (ICR), and/or Income Based Repayment (IBR) plans.
You are still working full time in an eligible job and have debt remaining after 120 qualifying payments.
What are eligible jobs?
In most cases, eligibility is based on whether you work for an eligible employer. Your job is eligible if you:
are employed by any nonprofit, tax-exempt 501©(3) organization; are employed by the federal government, a state government, local government, or tribal government (this includes the military and public schools and colleges); or serve in a full-time AmeriCorps or Peace Corps position.
If you don't meet these criteria, the Department of Education's regulations create a two-part test of other circumstances under which you may still be eligible:
(1) your employer is not "a business organized for profit, a labor union, a partisan political organization, or an organization engaged in religious activities, unless the qualifying activities are unrelated to religious instruction, worship services, or any form of proselytizing;"
and,
(2) your employer provides any of the following public services: emergency management; military service; public safety; law enforcement; public interest law services; early childhood education; public service for individuals with disabilities and the elderly; public health; public education; public library services; and school library or other school-based services.
These definitions of eligible jobs reflect the Department of Education's final regulations for PSLF, as posted in the Federal Register on October 23, 2008.
For more information: http://www.ibrinfo.org/index.php
I think it's worth finding out if you qualify!