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Back in 2016, I submitted my first ECF forms. If you want to know what they look like, here it is. It is pretty straightforward. Fill out a couple of boxes, have the right people sign. 2/ studentaid.ed.gov/sa/sites/defau…
My first employer was Education Sector which was another think tank and 501(c)3 that, unfortunately, closed (RIP). The ECF has a little check box on the front that you fill out if your employer shut down and Fedloan is supposed to tell you what you'll need to submit instead 3/ 
Instead, in 2016 they flat out rejected me telling me Education Sector was not a qualifying employer. I resubmitted my form to them along with my offer letter, proof of my last day worked, and 990s from the years I worked there. They rejected it again saying I needed W2s 4/
I was super pregnant when all of this was going on and didn't really have time to dig up my W2s from years ago, so I just rolled my eyes and knew I'd get back to it eventually. Luckily, @NewAmerica was straightforward and they counted all those payments towards PSLF. 5/
Fast forward a couple of years and I finally, finally got back around to digging up those W2s and decided to resubmit everything. Since I was already doing Education Sector, I also decided to submit a new ECF for New America so I can get an up to date count of my payments. 6/
I filled out one ECF for New America. Uploaded it to Fedloan. Boom. I was very excited to learn that you can now upload your forms online instead of faxing or mailing as I had to do 3 years ago. #smallvictories 7/
For Education Sector, I filled out my ECF and checked the box that said I had to provide alternate verification. I included 990s proving it was a 501(c)3 and my W2s proving I worked there (as requested by Fedloan). I uploaded those. 8/
Side note: It's really good I held on to those W2s which the IRS says you can shred after 3 years. 9/
This morning I got news that not only was my Education Sector ECF denied. But also my New America ECF. Which... ... ... it's pretty much unforgivable. 10/
The explanation for why both forms were rejected was provided but its utter garbage. Here is what they said. Both letters were inexplicably identical. 11/
I have the applications in front of my face--here it is. I filled out questions 9 and 10 and then I didn't need to fill out 11 and 12. It's called skip logic. 12/
Then they say I didn't get the form signed. Which is technically true for Education Sector since I told them I couldn't get it signed and provided alternative documentation. But this is incomprehensible feedback for New America's form which was appropriately signed. 13/
And actually they go on and on about how the form wasn't signed correctly when I'm literally staring at the signature, phone number, date, etc. etc. on my original application 14/
More then a year ago, my colleague @claremccann and I made a whole host of recommendations to reform PSLF and avoid a #PSLFiasco. 15/ newamerica.org/education-poli…
It was clear to us that PSLF is a complicated program layered on top of a complicated student loan system. The result would be something difficult to navigate and would lead to complex servicing issues. 16/
We argued that the program should be simplified so that only government or 501(c)3 employment counted because the other employment categories open a huge range of implementation challenges. BUT TRUTH IS, Fedloan can't even handle THE SIMPLEST SITUATIONS. 17/
I went from being 99% sure that I'll get PSLF to 90% sure, mostly because I really question Fedloan's ability to properly service these loans. I'm still feeling pretty confident, but am sure I will face delays and headaches. I may end up making more payments than anticipated. 18/
And literally, it seems like my next course of action is to resubmit everything again as is, and hope that I get another person to look at these forms at Fedloan who actually knows what he is doing. THIS SHOULD NOT BE HOW SERVICING WORKS. /End
