The Trump administration is delaying loan forgiveness for some borrowers as it rolls back Biden-era payment credits, a report from Politico has revealed.

For every lost payment credit, borrowers have to wait a month longer for loan forgiveness.

“The past five years have been a series of disappointments for federal student loan borrowers,” Jay Fleischman, a student loan specialist and managing attorney at MoneyWise Law, told The Independent.

The credit rollbacks impact participants in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. Borrowers get loan forgiveness for working 10 years in certain public service occupations, such as law enforcement or librarianship, while making 120 qualifying student loan payments.

In 2024, the Biden administration granted payment credits to public service borrowers because of payment-related missteps by certain loan servicers.

The Trump administration decided to annul some of those payment credits that it claims were awarded by the Biden administration in error.

“These errors resulted in inaccurate payment counts for some borrowers,” Department of Education Spokesperson Ellen Keast told The Independent in an email Monday. “The Department remains committed to ensuring that every qualifying payment is properly credited to a borrower’s account.”

Taking away Biden-era payment credits would betray the trust of students who believed the government-granted credits were permanent, Fleishman said in an email to The Independent.

“Though it's important for payment counts to be correct, federal student loan borrowers have made financial and career plans based on the information they've already been provided,” he said. “The administration's actions threaten to derail the progress millions have made toward loan forgiveness.”

Borrowers have faced massive changes to the federal student loan system over the past five years.

In 2023, the Biden administration added the income-driven SAVE plan to the list of repayment choices for borrowers. The plan limited borrower payments to 5 percent of their discretionary income and provided loan forgiveness after 20 to 25 years.

A federal judge declared the plan unconstitutional and ordered the government to end the SAVE Plan in March 2026.

Some 7.5 million borrowers were forced to choose a new plan because their SAVE Plan no longer existed. Starting July 1, borrowers received notices that they had 90 days to choose a replacement plan.

In the meantime, the Trump administration chose to end one other income-driven repayment plan by 2028 - PAYE. It introduced the RAP (Repayment Assistance Plan) as a replacement for all other income-driven plans.

Borrowers who lost their SAVE Plan will receive a notice to pick a new plan by the end of the year, according to the education department.