A key benefit for student-loan borrowers in public service just expired. Here's what happens now.

• The Public Service Loan Forgiveness waiver expired on October 31.
• But the Education Department plans to implement permanent fixes to the program following the waiver.

A key waiver for student-loan borrowers in public service just expired, but that doesn't mean benefits are over.

Last October, President Joe Biden's Education Department announced reforms to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, which forgives student debt for government and nonprofit workers after ten years of qualifying payments. One of the reforms was a temporary waiver that allowed past payments, including those previously deemed ineligible, to count toward forgiveness progress, and that waiver expired on Monday.

While some Democratic lawmakers had hoped the waiver would be extended to give more borrowers the opportunity to access its benefits, the Education Department said an extension wasn't necessary because it would be putting permanent fixes to the program in place.

"As we emerge from the pandemic and the waiver period ends, we're focused on making this program work for the long haul," Education Secretary Miguel Cardona told reporters last week. "People have asked me, 'are you going to provide an extension to the waiver?' Well instead, today we are announcing permanent changes to reduce the red tape and the confusing rules that riddle the PSLF program."

Part of those changes included a one-time account adjustment to borrowers enrolled in PSLF, along with income-driven repayment plans, to resolve any mistakes on borrowers' payments to date. So if a borrower missed the PSLF waiver deadline, they'll still have one more chance through this adjustment to ensure their payments counts are accurate. This adjustment will be implemented in July 2023, so borrowers whose loans are not in the direct federal loan program or have Federal Family Education Loans (FFEL) held by the department need to consolidate into an eligible loan by May 1, 2023 to receive the benefit.

Beyond that adjustment, PSLF borrowers can expect to see improvements to the program starting next summer. They will include allowing borrowers to receive credit for any late payments, credit for forbearance or deferment periods, and simplifying employment criteria. On Monday, the department finalized those new fixes, along with ones for other targeted loan forgiveness programs like borrower defense to repayment, which discharges loans for borrowers who prove they were defrauded by the school they attended.

While it will take a little while for borrowers to see those fixes, in the meantime, the department is still working to implement Biden's up to $20,000 in broad student-loan forgiveness. While the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily halted the plan, prohibiting the department from actually canceling any student debt until it makes a final decision on the legality of the policy, Cardona told reporters on Monday that borrowers should keep applying for the relief through the online form, and he is moving "full speed ahead" with implementation.