You may be a victim when it comes to your student loans, and your union’s national affiliate may be able to help you if you act soon. Your first step is taking a brief online survey.
Last year, when 11 American Federation of Teachers (AFT) members filed a class-action lawsuit against student loan provider Navient for deceiving public service workers about their eligibility options for loan forgiveness, it was only the beginning.
“As of the end of December 2018, 53,749 unique borrowers had submitted 65,500 applications for public service loan forgiveness, and only 610 applications had been approved by the Department of Education,” AFT President Randi Weingarten said in a letter to members. “Those who work in public service are being denied the forgiveness they are entitled to at alarmingly high rates, and it’s time to put a stop to it.”
She added, “That’s why the AFT is exploring further legal action on behalf of our members who have been denied public service loan forgiveness. Specifically, we are looking for AFT members whose applications for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program have been denied.”
DETAILS
CUNY faculty and staff, as employees of a public university system, may be eligible to participate in the AFT’s legal action. You may qualify if you have made 120 payments on federal student loans and have applied for and been denied public service loan forgiveness.
To qualify, you must also have worked at a public school or college, for the government or for a nonprofit organization for the last 10 years.
Members can check their eligibility by participating in the following survey: tinyurl.com/AFT-lawsuit.
The survey asks if you have loans and can share examples of how the loans affect your life, how family and career plans have been altered by loans, what you would change about your loan plan, what type of work you do, as well as age and contact information.
