Just got a letter from the DoE. Had to post it here 'cause after near thirty years, Dobby is free!

Arotrios,

On April 19, 2022, the Biden-Harris Administration announced several changes that will help borrowers get closer to or achieve forgiveness under income-driven repayment (IDR) regardless of whether or not you have ever participated in an IDR plan. With these changes, you are now eligible to have some or all of your student loans forgiven because you have reached the necessary 240- or 300-months’ of payments under IDR.

The U.S. Department of Education will work with your servicer to process your IDR forgiveness over the next several months. If you would like to opt out of IDR forgiveness for any reason, contact your loan servicer no later than 08/13/2023 and tell them that you are not interested in receiving IDR forgiveness. Some reasons why you might want to consider opting out include concerns about a potential state tax liability.

If you decide to opt out of IDR forgiveness, you will be expected to continue paying your loan(s) once the student loan payment pause ends.

Loan Servicer Information

Don’t know who your loan servicer is? Log in to StudentAid.gov, find “My Aid,” and select “View loan servicer details.” You can also call us at 1-800-4-FED-AID, and we will connect you with your servicer.

If you have federal student loans with multiple servicers—or if your loan(s) is being transferred—and you want to opt out of IDR forgiveness, you should contact all your servicers with eligible loans.

If you don’t opt out, here’s what happens next:

We will send your information to your loan servicer(s) after 08/13/2023.

Your loan servicer(s) will notify you if and when your IDR forgiveness has been processed. It may take some time for your loan servicer to process your forgiveness and for your account to reflect this change.

If you have loans with multiple servicers, each servicer will notify you if and when they have applied forgiveness to your account with them.

President Biden and the U.S. Department of Education are committed to supporting borrowers and ensuring they get the credit towards loan forgiveness that they are entitled to. Learn more about IDR forgiveness and the one-time account adjustment actions the Biden-Harris Administration announced last year.

Note: This letter is not an attempt to collect a debt or a demand for any payment.

Beware of Scams

You might be contacted by a company saying they will help you get a loan discharge, forgiveness, cancellation, or debt relief for a fee. You never have to pay for help with your federal student aid. Make sure you work only with ED and our loan servicers, and never reveal your personal information or account password to anyone.

Our emails to borrowers come from noreply@studentaid.gov, noreply@debtrelief.studentaid.gov, or ed.gov@public.govdelivery.com. You can report scam attempts to the Federal Trade Commission by calling 1-877-382-4357 or by visiting reportfraud.ftc.gov.