How Borrower Defense to Repayment Works
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The Borrower Defense to Repayment program can forgive a borrower's federal student loans if they were defrauded or intentionally misled by their school.
The Biden-Harris administration approved the dismissal of nearly $30 billion in debt for 1.7 million borrowers through borrower defense claims and closed school discharge, as of January 2025.
Here's what happens if the Education Department approves your borrower defense application. You receive:
Full discharge (100%) of federal student loans related to your application.
Reimbursement of any amount already paid toward the loans, according to regulations.
Requests to remove negative credit reporting with the credit bureaus.
Reinstatement of federal student aid eligibility, if you lost it.
Who gets relief under the Sweet v. Cardona settlement?
On Nov. 16, 2022, a federal judge in California gave approval on Sweet v. Cardona (formerly Sweet v. DeVos), a settlement of borrower defense claims that will provide up to 264,000 student loan borrowers with at least $6 billion in debt relief. The decision was upheld on Feb. 24, 2023.
The final settlement provides full relief, including student loan forgiveness, payment refunds and credit repair to 200,000 borrowers who filed before June 2022 and attended one of about 150 mostly for-profit schools involved in the case. The remaining 64,000 borrowers have pending claims against schools not on that list.
Do you qualify for borrower defense student loan forgiveness?
You might qualify for federal loan forgiveness under this program if you believe your school defrauded you in the following ways:
Intentionally misled you about your education program.
Caused you harm as a result to a degree that warrants full discharge of your loans.
You can submit a claim whether or not your school closed and even if you’re eligible for other loan forgiveness programs. You can’t submit a claim for private loans or costs you paid out of pocket.
Not sure if you should apply? Find out if your school has been the subject of legal action by the federal government, state attorneys general or the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. If your loans were disbursed before July 1, 2020, a judgment against your school can be grounds for a successful borrower defense.
How to apply for borrower defense
Submit a borrower defense loan discharge application on the Federal Student Aid office's website. An application takes about three hours to complete, including preparation time.
After you submit your application, the Department of Education legally has three years to make a decision on your application. However, you may receive a decision much sooner than that. Notifications are sent out via email.
To strengthen your claim, submit a detailed explanation of why your loans might qualify, along with any supporting evidence. This could include:
Actual licensure passage rates that are different from what the school advertised.
Actual employment rates that are different from what the school advertised.
Actual selectivity and admissions profiles that are different from what the school advertised.
Dishonest representation of school held certifications or approval for programs.
Dishonest representation of the education resources the school provided.
Dishonest representation of the transferability of credits.
Dishonest representations of graduate placement rates and salaries.
Dishonest representations regarding financial assistance.
For help with your claim, find legal clinics in your area through local nonprofits, law schools, city services or legal aid groups. You may also contact the National Consumer Law Center.
How to get a borrower defense forbearance
You can request a student loan forbearance — which will pause payments and collections while your application is under review — as part of your claim. After you submit your borrower defense application, the Education Department will send you a confirmation with more information about your forbearance options via email. Although the process may be automatic, you should contact your federal student loan servicer to make sure they received your forbearance notification and are processing it appropriately.
A borrower defense claim can result in full loan forgiveness, partial loan forgiveness or no loan forgiveness. Interest will accrue while the Education Department evaluates your application and you will be responsible for paying interest on any part of your loans that is not cancelled.
