Ninety-nine percent of those who applied in the first 12 months of a revamped student loan forgiveness program were rejected by the U.S. Education Department, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office.
The report was detailed in a story posted Thursday by CBS News.
The GAO found the Education Department approved 1%, or 661 requests for loan forgiveness and denied 99%, or 53,523 requests.
CBS News noted Congress had expanded the program in 2018 to help those having difficulty securing loan forgiveness through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. The PSLF was created in 2007 to forgive federal loans for students who work in public service jobs for at least 10 years while making payments.
The expanded Education Department program was aimed at helping those who were on plans ineligible for the PSLF program.
The GAO report noted some of the Education Department's key online resources don't include details on the expanded program. In addition, the report said the process "can be confusing for borrowers."
"As a result, some eligible borrowers may miss the opportunity to have their loans forgiven," the report said.
It also noted the Education Department does not require "all loan servicers" to include information regarding the forgiveness program on their own websites.
The GAO said the process is "not clear to borrowers."
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