A SavvyFi member we’ll call Dana has worked at a youth services nonprofit for six years, steadily building toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness. When she logged into studentaid.gov in September, her qualifying payment count hadn’t gone up since June. Payments she made in July and August weren’t showing at all, and one payment that had counted back in the spring now showed as ineligible.
Dana isn’t imagining things, and she isn’t alone. Borrowers across the country have watched their PSLF counts drop or freeze in the last several weeks, and it isn’t because they did anything wrong.
Here’s what’s actually causing it, what’s different about this round of errors, and exactly what to do if it’s happening to you.
Ready to have a coach look at your specific numbers? Book Your Free 5–10 Minute Screening Call and we’ll walk through your PSLF file with you.
Why did my PSLF payment count suddenly go down?
Because the Department of Education is actively correcting past counting errors, and the correction is subtracting payments from some borrowers’ totals. In August 2026, the department confirmed it had reduced PSLF qualifying payment counts for a number of borrowers after finding what it described as counter code errors traceable to system changes made back in May 2024, according to CNBC and The College Investor. The department hasn’t said publicly how many accounts were affected or provided individualized explanations to the borrowers whose counts dropped.
In plain terms: some payments that were showing as qualifying were never supposed to count, and the fix is removing them now, months or years after the fact, with little warning.
Why aren’t my July and August payments showing up at all?
That’s a separate, newer problem: a posting lag. On July 1, 2026, the federal loan system went through a major overhaul to implement new loan limits and repayment plan structures. One side effect has been that payments made in July and August simply haven’t posted to PSLF counts yet for a large number of borrowers, even though the payments themselves were received and processed by the servicer.
So you may be dealing with one issue, the other, or both at once: older payments getting subtracted because of a coding correction, and newer payments not showing up yet because of a system-migration backlog. They look identical on your screen – a lower number than you expect – but they’re not the same problem, and they don’t get fixed the same way.
Is this connected to the IDR payment tracker being unavailable, or to servicers sending wrong notices?
It’s part of the same broader rollout mess, yes. The income-driven repayment payment count tracker on studentaid.gov has been unreliable for over a year. Separately, at least one major servicer sent false delinquency notices this year to borrowers who had no overdue balance at all, and the department has told some income-driven repayment applicants to resubmit paperwork after finding their monthly payments had been calculated incorrectly the first time.
None of this means your loans are actually in trouble. It means the systems tracking your loans are currently unreliable, and the burden of catching an error has shifted onto you.
What should I actually do if my PSLF count dropped or stalled?
Start by documenting, not panicking. Before you change plans, call your servicer in frustration, or assume the worst, do three things:
Save your own record. Screenshot your PSLF tracker and your servicer’s payment history today, with the date visible, so you have a baseline to compare against going forward.
Check whether your employer certification is current. A dropped count is sometimes a real subtraction and sometimes a certification gap resurfacing at the same time. Confirm your current employer’s certification is on file and up to date before you assume the count itself is wrong.
Don’t assume it will self-correct. Some of these errors do resolve on their own as the backlog clears. Others don’t move until a borrower flags them directly. Waiting quietly is the riskiest option, especially if you’re getting close to your 120 qualifying payments.
If you’d rather not sort through this alone, book a free 5–10 minute screening call with a SavvyFi coach and we’ll help you figure out which kind of error you’re dealing with.
When does it make sense to file a paper PSLF form instead of waiting on the portal?
When your online submission history and your actual payment history clearly disagree, and the gap includes payments you can document. In a recent SavvyFi coaching case matching this pattern, the coach’s recommendation was to complete a paper PSLF form with a hand signature rather than relying on the electronic version, then upload the signed form directly into the borrower’s Federal Student Aid account, rather than faxing it, so there’s a timestamped record inside the system itself.
The coach also recommended contacting the Federal Student Aid Information Center (FSAIC) directly to ask, in writing where possible, why specific months dropped or never posted, and to get a case reference number tied to the inquiry. A paper trail matters here: if the correction is eventually reversed or delayed further, you want a documented date showing when you flagged it.
Does this affect the PSLF Buyback Program too?
It can, particularly for anyone using Buyback to retroactively count forbearance or deferment months toward their 120 qualifying payments. The department has started requesting tax returns from the same year a borrower’s qualifying forbearance period began, for periods lasting longer than a year, which means documentation from 2023 or 2024 may suddenly be relevant to a 2026 Buyback application. If your payment count is already in flux from the errors above, it’s worth confirming your Buyback math before you submit, not after.
What should I do this week?
Pull up your PSLF tracker and your servicer’s payment history side by side today, and write down what each one shows, with the date. If they don’t match, or if payments from the last two months are missing entirely, don’t wait for the next login to see if it’s fixed itself. File the paper form if your documentation supports it, call the FSAIC, and get a reference number for your file.
The system is actively catching up on its own backlog right now. Borrowers who document early and ask specific questions are the ones getting resolved fastest. Book your free 5–10 minute screening call if you want a coach to pull up your numbers with you before you make your next move.
About SavvyFi: SavvyFi is a user-friendly fintech platform that makes it easy for employers to provide college savings and student loan benefits to their employees. Because the company’s platform is “zero-touch” to HR — without any complicated systems, integrations, or paperwork — SavvyFi unlocks education financing capabilities to even the smallest employers that would not otherwise be able to offer these benefits.
Disclosure: Third-party quotes shown may not be representative of the experience of all SavvyFi customers and do not represent a guarantee of future performance or success.
