Stafford Loan Deferment & Forbearance

Under certain circumstances, you may find it difficult to repay your Stafford student loans. Such circumstances may include unemployment, economic hardship, military service, disability, attending graduate school or going to college on a part-time basis. If any of these situations prevent you from making payments, you may be eligible for Stafford loan deferment.

Deferment provides a period of time in which federal Stafford loan payments can be reduced or suspended for a determined amount of time. During deferment, a borrower is not required to pay down the principal on either a subsidized or unsubsidized Stafford Loan.

Interest will continue to accrue on unsubsidized loans, and be paid for by the government on subsidized loans. It is important to realize that during deferment, interest payments are still required.

StudentLoans.com is ready to help you with these deferment situations. The forms to request deferment can be obtained by downloading, printing and submitting any of the following:

Financial Aid Help Forms

• Financial Aid Checklist Worksheet - A helpful, printable form to keep track of what you need to do for Federal Financial Aid for the 2010-11 school year.
• Application Form Tracking Worksheet - Keep track of everything with this easy to use form.
• Cost of Attendance Worksheet - The cost of attendance is unique for each student. Use this sheet for personal calculations.
• Award Package Comparison Sheet - School offering varying awards and differing packages. Use this comparison sheet to weigh your options!
• Sample Scholarship Inquiry Letter

Federal Direct Loan Program (FDLP) Deferment Forms

• Economic Hardship Deferment Form

  This form is used when you receive federal or state public assistance or earn less than a federal minimum wage or exceed a federally defined debt-to-income ratio. Generally speaking, if you are employed and your federal loan payments amount to more than 20% of your adjusted gross income (AGI), you use this form.

• Education Related Deferment Form

  This form is used if you are participating in a Graduate Fellowship program, internship and/or residency program, in a full-time rehabilitation training program or teaching in a federally designated teacher shortage area.

• In School Deferment Form

  If you are currently in school half-time or more at a Title IV, accredited college, you may be eligible to use this form to defer payments until 6 months after your graduation or 2 months after dropping out of your course of study.

  This form can also be used for parents or legal guardians that borrowed a Federal Parent PLUS loan for their child.

• Parental Leave / Working Mother Deferment Form

  To quality for this loan, you must be pregnant or caring for a newborn or newly adopted child; must not be working full-time or attending school; must have been enrolled in school at least half-time during the six months preceding the requested deferment period; and must meet other conditions, or,

  You must be the mother of a preschool age child, be working full-time but earning not more than $1 above minimum wage, and meet other conditions.

• Public Service Deferment Form

  Are you an active member of the U.S. Armed Forces, Peace Corps, a Public Health Worker, a worker at a tax-exempt organization or on duty for the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)? If so, this deferment may allow you to temporarily suspend your federal loan payments.

• Temporary Total Disability Deferment Form

  To qualify for this deferment, you must be unable to work and earn money or go to school for at least 60 days in order to recover from an illness or injury or care for a spouse or dependent with an illness or injury. The condition cannot have existed before you applied for the loan(s).

• Unemployment Deferment Form

  You must be seeking but unable to find full-time employment (more than 30 hours per week) that is expected to last at least 3 months.

Federal Direct Loan Program (FDLP) Forbearance Forms

• Americorps (CNCS) Forbearance Form

  This forbearance allows you to stop payments temporarily if you are serving in an approved national service position. The forbearance form must be certified by the Corporation for National Community Service (CNCS).

• General Forbearance Form

  This forbearance allows you to postpone or reduce the amount of your monthly payment for a limited and specific period of time.

• Internship / Residency Forbearance Form

  This forbearance allows you to postpone or reduce the amount of your monthly payment for a limited and specific period of time if you have been accepted into an Internship/Residency Program.

• Loan Debt Burden Forbearance Form

  This forbearance allows you to postpone or reduce the amount of your monthly payment for a limited and specific period of time if you provide acceptable documentation showing that your monthly payments for eligible education loan(s) exceed 20% of your total monthly gross income.

• Teacher Loan Forgiveness Forbearance Form

  This forbearance allows you to postpone your monthly payment for a limited and specific period of time while you are performing qualifying teaching service as a teacher in an eligible elementary or secondary school or educational service agency.

Loan Forms

• Loan Forgiveness Form (Childcare)
• Loan Discharge Form (Disability)
• Loan Discharge Form (False Certification, Ability to Benefit)
• Loan Discharge Form (False Certification, Disqualifying Status)
• Loan Discharge Form (False Certification, Unauthorized Signature)
• Loan Discharge Form (School Closure)
• Loan Discharge Form (Teachers Forgiveness Program)

Financial Aid Professionals

• School Certification Form

All the above forms are in PDF format. You will need Adobe Reader to properly view and print them - download here.

If you are temporarily unable to meet your Stafford loan repayment schedule and cannot qualify for deferment, you can apply to receive forbearance on your loan for a period of time. Forbearance allows you to postpone or reduce loan payments. Unlike deferment, interest will always continue to accrue during forbearance on subsidized Stafford loans.

Deferment and forbearance are not automatic, and payments should continue until a request for deferment or forbearance is granted. If payments on student loans are not made on time, default may occur.