Markus Andrews

The backlog of student loan borrowers trying to access Public Service Loan Forgiveness continues to grow under the Trump administration.
As of Aug. 31, there were 74,510 applications pending for the PSLF Buyback program. That’s up from 72,730 in July and 65,448 borrowers at of the end of June.
PSLF Buyback allows borrowers who’ve hit 120 months of qualifying public service employment to submit a request to the Education Department to retroactively pay for — or “buy back” — any months they missed because of a forbearance or deferment.

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More than 74,000 federal student loan borrowers are stuck in a backlog of applications for a popular student loan forgiveness program.
That program, called Public Service Loan Forgiveness Buyback, allows borrowers pursuing PSLF to get their debt wiped away sooner than they might have expected. Signed into law in 2007 by President George W. Bush, PSLF offers debt cancellation to those who’ve spent a decade working for certain not-for-profits or the government.

As of Aug. 31, there’s a 74,510-person backlog of borrowers waiting to have the U.S. Department of Education process their buyback applications, according to a new court filing. That’s up from 72,730 in July and 65,448 borrowers as of the end of June. During the month of August, just 5,600 buyback applications were processed, the filing shows.
The U.S. Department of Education did not respond to a request for comment.
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The Education Department has regularly shared data on pending buyback requests as part of a lawsuit filed by the American Federation of Teachers. The teacher’s union alleges the agency is blocking borrowers from their rights.
Some of the borrowers CNBC has spoken with describe waiting for half a year or more for a determination on their buyback request.

Here’s what student loan borrowers need to know about the program and its current challenges.

PSLF Buyback applications pile up under Trump

The Biden administration first offered PSLF Buyback in the summer of 2023.
The opportunity allows borrowers who’ve hit 120 months of qualifying public service employment to submit a request to the Education Department to retroactively pay for — or “buy back” — any months they missed because of a forbearance or deferment. During those payment pauses, borrowers typically don’t get credit toward PSLF.
The Buyback program became especially popular after courts blocked the Biden-era Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE, plan in the summer of 2024. Millions of student loan borrowers who signed up for SAVE were automatically enrolled in a forbearance during that legal battle. Those borrowers found their progress towards PSLF frozen throughout the payment pause, even as they continued to work in eligible public service.
Now applications have piled up under the Trump administration. In March, Trump officials terminated nearly half of the staff at the Education Department, including many of the people who assisted borrowers.

Student loan borrowers should still apply

Despite the PSLF buyback delays, “if you are eligible, there’s no harm in submitting the application,” said Nancy Nierman, assistant director of the Education Debt Consumer Assistance Program in New York.
“But if you can afford payments in other repayment plans, don’t rely solely on the Buyback to get you to 120 qualifying payments, particularly if you only need a few months of credit to reach forgiveness,” she said.

You can apply for Buyback and also submit paperwork to switch into another repayment plan at the same time. But there’s a backlog of repayment plan applications, too. More than one million requests for a new plan are pending with the department, court records also show.
While you can remain in the SAVE forbearance for now, borrowers’ debts began accruing interest again in August.
If you continue making payments on your loans after you’ve applied for a buyback offer, or if the Education Department finds you’ve made more than the required 120 qualifying payments for PSLF, you’re entitled to a refund from the government, said higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz. He has heard from people who’ve gotten one in this scenario.

How to apply for PSLF Buyback

You can apply for the Buyback program through the PSLF Reconsideration portal on your Federal Student Aid account, Nierman said
Consumer advocates recommend keeping track of when you submitted your buyback request (you should receive a confirmation email) and the number of your qualifying PSLF payments. That figure should be accessible on your student loan account.

How your buyback offer is calculated

After you’ve submitted your buyback request, the Education Dept. is supposed to send you an offer letter. That should include the number of monthly payments you missed during your public service history, and a chance to pay that bill now in exchange for student loan forgiveness.
How the government calculates your missed monthly payments is complicated, said Kantrowitz. But it’s usually based on what your bills were before and after the period during which you weren’t making qualifying payments, Kantrowitz said.
Some people who have low incomes are eligible for zero-dollar payments, and they might not have to pay anything to get their debt cleared.
Once you get the offer letter, Kantrowitz said, “You must pay the amount to your loan servicer within 90 days.” More

The IRS has been slow to pay car dealers for electric vehicle tax credits since mid-September, dealers said.
Some have continued issuing the EV tax credit to consumers as an upfront rebate, even if it puts them in a cash crunch, while others have pulled back on sales, dealers said.
Analysts expected September to be a blockbuster month for EV sales. The federal EV tax credit disappears after Sept. 30.

Internal Revenue Service headquarters on April 30, 2025, in Washington, DC.
J. David Ake | Getty Images News | Getty Images

The Internal Revenue Service has been slow in recent weeks to approve and pay federal tax credits for electric vehicles, according to auto dealers and industry analysts — creating confusion for car dealers and hindering EV sales less than a week before the tax break is slated to disappear.
The delays began in earnest in mid-September, according to accounts shared with CNBC from three dealers in different parts of the country. Auto analysts and two national trade associations also confirmed to CNBC dealership reports of delays.

The dealerships say it forces them into a tough choice: carry the cost to keep offering the credit, or pull back and risk losing vehicle sales.
“We’re continuing to pay the tax credit, though with a lot of anxiety,” said Jesse Lore, founder of Green Wave Electric Vehicles in North Hampton, New Hampshire. “We’re out close to $100,000 right now.”

Most consumers access the tax break — worth up to $4,000 for used EVs and $7,500 for new EVs — as an upfront rebate at the point of sale. That rebate can serve as a full or partial down payment, or reduce a car’s overall cost, for example.
Car dealers generally front that money to qualifying consumers after getting online approval from the IRS, and the agency then repays dealers.
Prior to mid-September, that entire process generally happened within a few days, dealers said.

Now, the IRS is taking an unusually long time to approve and pay EV tax credits, dealers said. They say they are unable to get in touch with the agency, and as a result are in limbo and without an idea of when — or if — they’ll get those funds.

A White House official said in an e-mail that all valid EV tax credits applied for before the Sept. 30 deadline would be granted and paid out.
Robyn Capehart, an IRS spokesperson, wrote in an e-mail that “any submissions through the Energy Credits Online portal have always been subject to IRS review and approval.”
“Once approved by the IRS, seller reports (also known as time of sale reports) support vehicle eligibility for the credit, even if that acceptance followed an IRS review period,” Capehart wrote.
The White House and the IRS offered no explanation for the reported delays.

‘We’re in the dark’

Some dealerships have continued to issue the EV tax credit to qualifying buyers, hoping the federal government will pay them back later.
A dozen new applications Lore has submitted to the IRS since Sept. 15 are still listed as “pending,” he said. Three others were approved on Thursday. None have been paid yet. Lore showed screenshots of the transactions to CNBC.
Such a delay had previously rarely occurred since the tax break first became available as an upfront rebate, in January 2024, Lore said.
“We’re in the dark,” he said.
He also hasn’t been able to provide customers with the time-of-sale report that they need to reconcile the tax credit on their annual tax return, Lore said.

EV tax credit delays come at ‘worst possible time’

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It’s unclear why and to what extent delays are happening.
Some dealers speculated they may be tied to backlogs at the IRS due to reduced staffing and higher volume of EV sales. Others said they think it could be a purposeful move by the Trump administration in an effort to reduce EV sales.
Regardless, the roadblocks come at a bad time, dealers and analysts said.
Republicans ended the EV tax credit after Sept. 30 as part of the so-called “big beautiful bill” passed in July. The tax break was supposed to last through 2032.
Consumers have rushed to buy EVs before the tax break disappears, to secure the cars at a discounted price.
That helped push new and used EV sales to record highs in August, according to Cox Automotive data. September was expected to be another blockbuster month.
But some dealers have pulled back amid the uncertainty, unable to float big sums of cash to consumers.
“I know for a fact there are dealers saying, ‘We’re not doing it anymore. We’re not getting paid,'” Lore said. “Others are saying [to consumers], ‘We’re holding the cars, and you can’t drive the car home until we get paid in full.'”
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Gary Pretzfeld, co-owner of AutoTrust USA in Miramar, Florida, said the IRS owes him about $80,000 to $90,000 in rebates that he has floated to EV buyers this month.
“There are definitely some dealers who can’t afford to do it this way,” Pretzfeld said.
Car dealerships are a “really cash-intensive business,” and payment delays threaten to tip dealers into a “cash crunch” at a time when they were expecting to sell huge volumes of EVs, said Scott Case, the CEO of Recurrent, an EV market research firm.
“It’s a quiet, festering problem at the worst possible time,” Case said.
The National Independent Automobile Dealers Association, a trade group that represents used car dealers, is aware of the issue, said spokesperson Richard Greene.
“The dealers and NIADA have engaged the IRS,” Greene said in an e-mail. “NIADA hopes the payments are processed by the IRS before the program’s expiration.”
Amy Hunter Wright, a spokesperson for the National Automobile Dealers Association, a trade group, also said some members had experienced delays.
“Anecdotally, we have heard some dealers report that recent submissions have been placed in pending status since last week,” she wrote in an e-mailed statement. “NADA has been and continues to work with the IRS and the Department of Treasury regarding the portal and they have been cooperative.”

Why the upfront rebate is important to buyers

Jackyenjoyphotography | Moment | Getty Images

Of course, dealers aren’t obligated to offer the tax credit as an upfront payment.
Consumers can still try to claim the tax break when they file their annual tax returns next year.
But the point-of-sale rebate has been a big draw for consumers, said Al Salas, CEO of Eco Auto, a dealer with operations in Massachusetts and Washington state, and which is expanding to Florida, Georgia and New Jersey.

It’s a quiet, festering problem at the worst possible time.

Scott Case
CEO of Recurrent

Getting the tax break upfront reduces monthly payments for consumers who finance their purchase and reduces the total sales tax on the purchase, Salas said.
For example, a consumer who buys a used EV might pay $80 to $100 more per month on a five-year loan if they’re unable to get the $4,000 tax credit upfront, Salas said.
The tax break is also harder for certain consumers to access at tax time. While the point-of-sale rebate is available to qualifying consumers regardless of their tax liability, that’s not true for those who claim the tax break on their annual tax return: They must have a tax liability to claim even a partial credit.

The IRS has approved some applications Salas submitted last week, while others are pending.
“As dealers, it’s a really unfortunate situation, because we are fronting the money,” Salas said. “And in a lot of ways, we’re financing the consumer’s ability to get a new vehicle.”
The IRS owes him about $50,000 of tax credits, Salas said. He expects the federal government to pay him back eventually.
So does Pretzfeld, the dealer based in Miramar, Florida.
Pretzfeld saw all EV sales submitted to the IRS for tax credit approval listed as “pending” starting around Sept. 15, he said.
One submitted Sept. 16 and one from Sept. 17 have been approved, and he’s awaiting payment.
“The timeline is now longer, and it’s murkier,” Pretzfeld said. “That’s the part that’s freaking everyone out.” More

Most Americans can’t correctly identify the age when they will be eligible for 100% of the Social Security benefits they’ve earned.
Congress may change the language used to describe those ages to help individuals better assess their benefit claiming decisions.
Social Security retirement ages aren’t changing now, though there’s fierce debate over whether those thresholds should be raised.

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Deciding when to claim Social Security retirement benefits is a big decision — and Congress is looking at changing the program’s wording to help people better understand their options.
Understanding the trade-offs for claiming at different ages can be confusing, and some experts say the terms the agency currently uses do not help. Only 21% of more than 1,800 adults recently surveyed by the Nationwide Retirement Institute can correctly identify the age at which they qualify for full Social Security benefits.

Earlier this month, the House Ways and Means Committee advanced the Claiming Age Clarity Act, a bipartisan bill, in a 41 to 1 vote. A version of the bill has also been proposed in the Senate.
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The proposed changes would make the claiming language “substantially clearer,” said Emerson Sprick, director of retirement and labor policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center.

‘Unreduced retirement benefits,’ ‘full retirement age’

If you were born after 1959, you will be eligible for the full Social Security retirement benefits you have earned at age 67. That is what the agency calls your “full retirement age” — the point at which you may claim 100% of the benefits you’ve earned.
The full Social Security retirement age has been changing — from age 66 to 67 — based on year of birth.

The shift to a higher full retirement age was enacted in 1983 as part of a legislative package that restored the program’s financing after it faced a funding shortfall. That included raising the age of eligibility for so-called unreduced retirement benefits to 67 by 2027.
Today, Social Security also faces a funding shortfall, and there is a debate among lawmakers and experts as to whether raising the retirement age may again be on the menu of changes.
Currently, Social Security beneficiaries can maximize their benefits by delaying the age at which they start their monthly retirement payments. Beneficiaries first become eligible for benefits starting at age 62, but they take a permanent cut for doing so. By waiting to claim until age 70, they may receive the maximum monthly benefit available to them.

How Social Security claiming terms may change

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The Claiming Age Clarity Act calls for changing the language the Social Security Administration uses to describe claiming ages:

Age 62, currently referred to as the “early eligibility age.” would become the “minimum benefit age” to reflect the permanent benefits reduction that claimants see if they start that soon.

Age 66 to 67, currently called “full retirement age” based on an individual’s birth year, would instead be referred to as “standard benefit age.”

Age 70, the latest age for benefit increases, would no longer be called “delayed retirement age” and instead be referred to as “maximum benefit age.” For every year an individual delays claiming from full retirement age up to age 70, they may earn an 8% increase in benefits, boosting their benefits by up to 24%.

Calling age 62 the “early eligibility age” conveys you can start benefits then, but “it says nothing about what that benefit is going to look like,” Sprick said.
By instead calling that milestone “minimum monthly benefit age,” that better communicates the implications for the monthly payments those beneficiaries will receive, he said.
“There’s evidence that it would have real effects on claiming behavior, and that will have real effects on folks’ financial security throughout retirement for the rest of their lives after they claim,” Sprick said.

Will the Social Security retirement age move higher?

In a Sept. 18 Fox News interview, Social Security Administration Commissioner Frank Bisignano said “everything’s being considered” in response to a question on whether the retirement age may be raised.
However, the next day Bisignano clarified in a follow-up statement on X, “Raising the retirement age is not under consideration.”
The prospect of raising the Social Security retirement age has little support among Americans, according to a January study from the National Academy of Social Insurance, AARP, National Institute on Retirement Security and U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
The reason: Americans are “broadly opposed” to benefit cuts, the research found, and raising the retirement age counts as a benefit reduction.

To be sure, any such change would have to be enacted by Congress. Democrats have largely rejected suggestions to raise the Social Security retirement age. “For every year you raise the age, that is a 7 percent cut in benefits,” Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., said in a Sept. 18 statement.
Yet suggestions of raising the retirement age continue to come up.
In December, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., proposed an amendment to the Social Security Fairness Act that would raise the full retirement age to 70. That proposal did not pass.
A December Congressional Budget Office analysis found moving the full retirement age to 70 would not fully address the program’s 75-year shortfall.
Denmark recently pushed its retirement age to 70.
Yet some experts say it would be a stretch for the U.S. to follow its cue, since U.S. poverty rates are higher, leading life expectancy increases to be spread unevenly.
“There are increasing concerns in recent years about an across-the-board increase to the retirement age, given the disparities in longevity between higher earners and lower earners, folks with higher education levels and lower education levels,” Sprick said.

If the retirement age were increased, claimants who cannot wait past age 62 may see further benefit reductions. Moreover, it may impact the progressivity of the benefit formula, which provides lower-level earners with higher replacement rates.
There are ways Congress could mitigate those effects, such as by creating a new basic minimum benefit to help those who cannot delay benefits, for work, health or other reasons, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center. Lawmakers could also opt to increase the benefit replacement rate for lower earners, according to the Washington, D.C.-based think tank. More

The Education Department said the 2026-27 Free Application for Federal Student Aid is now available to everyone.
For many families, submitting a FAFSA is key when it comes to covering college costs.
The earlier that college-bound students and their families fill out the form, the better their chances are of receiving financial aid, experts say.

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The U.S. Department of Education opened the Free Application for Federal Student Aid form on Wednesday — one week before the anticipated Oct. 1 launch date. The early start may help more students gain college access, experts say.
Completing the FAFSA is the only way to tap federal aid money for higher education, including federal student loans, work-study and grants.

“Given the previous glitches, delays, and confusion, having the FAFSA delivered not only on time but early is a huge win,” said Rick Castellano, a spokesperson for Sallie Mae. 
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In part because of previous complications with the new form, which initially launched in late December 2023 after a months-long delay, completion rates fell last year.
Only 71% of families submitted the FAFSA for the 2024-25 academic year, down from 74% in the previous cycle, according to Sallie Mae’s recent How America Pays for College report, which surveyed 2,000 college-aged students and their parents.
“Hopefully we’ll see those numbers begin to tick in the right direction,” Castellano said.

Further, the earlier college-bound students and their families fill out the form, the better their chances are of receiving aid, Castellano said. That’s because some financial aid is awarded on a first-come, first-served basis, or from programs with limited funds.
“Filing early also means students and families may receive financial aid offers from schools earlier, which can help them make more informed decisions about planning and paying for college,” he said.
For many families, financial aid is key when it comes to covering the cost of college, which has jumped significantly in recent decades. Grants — including federal ones such as the Pell Grant — have become the most crucial kind of assistance, because they typically do not need to be repaid.
Submitting a FAFSA is also one of the best predictors of whether a high school senior will go on to college, according to the National College Attainment Network, or NCAN. Seniors who complete the FAFSA are 84% more likely to enroll in college directly after high school, according to an NCAN study of 2013 data. 
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Recent changes to the student loan system have left borrowers with fewer repayment options.
And now one of the remaining plans available plans — known as the Income-Based Repayment plan, or IBR — is in trouble, too.
Student loan borrowers can’t access the perks of the plan at the moment, if they can even get enrolled in it at all.

Workers leave the Department of Education building during a rain shower in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, May 21, 2025.
Wesley Lapointe | The Washington Post | Getty Images

Recent changes to the federal student loan system have left many borrowers with fewer repayment options. But even one of the remaining plans — known as the Income-Based Repayment plan, or IBR — is proving hard to access.
“Applications are being rejected without clear or logical explanations,” said Carolina Rodriguez, director of the Education Debt Consumer Assistance Program. Rodriguez and her team members work with clients with student loans.

“These ongoing delays continue to erode public trust in the student loan system and are likely to worsen the delinquency and default rates we’re already seeing,” Rodriguez said.
IBR will be one of only a few repayment options left to many borrowers after recent court actions and the passage by Congress of President Donald Trump’s “big beautiful bill.” That legislation phases out several existing student loan repayment plans.
Here’s what student loan borrowers need to know about the challenges with IBR.

IBR debt forgiveness is still frozen

Over the summer, the U.S. Department of Education announced that it would temporarily stop forgiving the debt of borrowers enrolled in IBR. According to the plan’s terms, IBR concludes in debt erasure after 20 years or 25 years of payments, depending on the age of a borrower’s loans.
The Education Department told CNBC in July that it paused loan forgiveness under IBR while it responds to recent court actions involving the Biden administration-era SAVE, or Saving on a Valuable Education, plan.

The department said that the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision in February, which blocked the SAVE plan, had other impacts on student loan repayment. For example, under the rule involving SAVE, certain periods during which borrowers postponed their payments would count toward their forgiveness timeline. With SAVE blocked now, borrowers no longer get credit during those forbearances.
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“The Department has temporarily paused discharges for IBR borrowers in order to correctly count loan forgiveness amounts under a court injunction regarding the Biden Administration’s illegal SAVE repayment plan,” said Ellen Keast, deputy press secretary at the Education Department.
“For any borrower that makes a payment after they became eligible for forgiveness, the Department will refund overpayments when the discharges resume,” Keast said.
Earlier this month, the department wrote on its website that the system changes to IBR could take until “winter 2025.”
“More than enough time has passed for the Department to fix whatever issues were supposedly affecting IBR forgiveness,” said higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz. “That suggests the holdup is intentional.”
The pause puts many student loan borrowers who’ve been in repayment for decades and are now eligible for forgiveness in an especially frustrating bind, Kantrowitz said. IBR is the only income-driven repayment plan still available that leads to loan erasure, he said.

Wrongful IBR denials

When lawmakers phased out several student loan repayment plans over the summer in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, they made a change to IBR aimed at expanding people’s eligibility for the program. Experts say that’s likely because many borrowers would need access to the plan after the other options became defunct or are set to expire.
The change eliminated the former requirement that borrowers prove a partial financial hardship to qualify for IBR. In the past, borrowers needed to show, based on their income, that their monthly IBR payment would be less than their bill on the department’s standard plan.
However, “borrowers are still being rejected due to their income,” said Elaine Rubin, director of corporate communications at Edvisors.
Kantrowitz said the same: “I’ve heard that some borrowers were denied IBR even though the change was supposed to be effective upon enactment on July 4, 2025.”

There are similar accounts in the American Federation of Teacher’s lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education. The union, which represents some 2 million members, has said the Trump administration is depriving borrowers of their rights.
One plaintiff, who owes approximately $252,659 in federal student loan debt, has been paying for over 25 years, according to a September court filing in the AFT legal challenge. The woman applied for IBR in July but said that she was denied in August “on the grounds that she does not have a ‘partial financial hardship,’ which has not been a requirement for the IBR plan since the enactment of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” the AFT said.
“The Department therefore improperly denied her access to a payment plan for which she is eligible and is withholding loan cancellation,” the union said. More