FAQs for the Sweet v. Cardona Settlement

For the latest on the Sweet v. Cardona litigation, as well as relevant upcoming dates and case documents, please visit our case page. 

Be aware that there may be scammers contacting you regarding the Sweet v. Cardona lawsuit and settlement. As the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says: Don’t pay anybody for anything related to your borrower defense claim. Nobody can move you up in line, give you special access, or guarantee a successful application. Not for free, and certainly not for money. And only scammers will ask. And if you spot a scam, tell the FTC: ReportFraud.ftc.gov. Visit the FTC’s website for more information. 

Most Frequently Asked Questions

  • We understand that a change in the administration can raise a lot of uncertainty. However, the change in administration will not change the Department's obligations under the settlement and the relief that has already been given. If necessary, as we have done before, PPSL will use the settlement agreement's enforcement provisions to ensure that the Department complies with all of its obligations.

  • If you are in the automatic relief group, you should have already received Full Settlement Relief. If you have NOT received Full Settlement Relief, please email sweet@ed.gov, with a copy to info@ppsl.org, and let us know what relief you are missing.

    If you believe that you are entitled to a further refund for payments you made to the Department on your Sweet-eligible BD-related loans, the Department will be setting up a process for you to request your additional refund. Please check this space and watch out for emails from PPSL for further updates regarding the consolidation loan refund process.

    If you made payments on FFEL(P) loans, you might not be entitled to a refund on those payments. For more information, please see “I am a Class Member with FFEL loans, how does this affect my relief?” below. If you are not sure what type(s) of loans you have, please see the guidance under “Does the type of federal student loan I have (Direct, FFEL, Consolidated, etc.) affect my settlement relief?”

    Please note that if you submitted borrower defense applications related to multiple schools, your applications may be in different groups.

  • The timing of your relief will depend on when you submitted your BD application. Please note: If you submitted borrower defense applications related to multiple schools, your applications may be in different groups.

    Please see the dates below for a relief timeline:

    Decision Group 1

    Decision group members in group 1 (people who applied for BD on or before December 31, 2017) whose applications were approved, should have received Full Settlement Relief by July 28, 2024. PPSL is aware that not all relief has been delivered, and the court has ordered the Department to complete delivering all relief by December 20, 2024. If you do not receive Full Settlement Relief by December 20, 2024, please email sweet@ed.gov, with a copy to info@ppsl.org, explaining which type(s) of relief (discharge, refund, credit repair) you are missing.

    If you submitted your BD application on or before December 31, 2017, and have not received a decision (either an approval or a revise & resubmit notice), please email sweet@ed.gov, with a copy to info@ppsl.org, explaining that you did not get a decision on your application.

    Decision Group 2

    Decision group members in group 2 (people who applied for BD between January 1, 2018, and December 31, 2018) whose applications were approved should receive Full Settlement Relief by January 28, 2025. If you do not receive Full Settlement Relief by January 28, 2025, please email sweet@ed.gov, with a copy to info@ppsl.org, explaining which type(s) of relief (discharge, refund, credit repair) you are missing.

    If you submitted your BD application between January 1, 2018, and December 31, 2018, and you have not received a decision(either an approval or a revise & resubmit notice), please email sweet@ed.gov, with a copy to info@ppsl.org, explaining that you did not get a decision on your application.

    Decision Group 3

    Decision group members in group 3 (people who applied for BD between January 1, 2019, and December 31, 2019) whose applications were approved should receive Full Settlement Relief by July 28, 2025. If you do not receive Full Settlement Relief by July 28, 2025, please email sweet@ed.gov, with a copy to info@ppsl.org, explaining which type(s) of relief (discharge, refund, credit repair) you are missing.

    If you submitted your BD application between January 1, 2019, and December 31, 2019, and you have not received a decision (either an approval or a revise & resubmit notice), please email sweet@ed.gov, with a copy to info@ppsl.org, explaining that you did not get a decision on your application.

    If your application was not approved, you should have received instructions on how to “revise and resubmit” your application. If you have questions about this process, please email sweet@ed.gov, with a copy to info@ppsl.org.

    Decision Group 4

    Decision group members in group 4 (people who applied for BD between January 1, 2020, and December 31, 2020) should receive a decision on your application by January 28, 2025. If your application is approved, you should receive your Full Settlement Relief within one year of the date when you receive your approval decision. If your application is not approved, you should receive instructions on how to “revise and resubmit” your application. If you have questions about this process, please email sweet@ed.gov, with a copy to info@ppsl.org.

    If you do not receive a decision (either an approval or a revise & resubmit notice) by January 28, 2025, please email sweet@ed.gov, with a copy to info@ppsl.org, explaining that you did not get a decision on your application.

    Decision Group 5

    Decision group members in group 5 (people who applied for BD between January 1, 2021, and June 22, 2022) should receive a decision on your application by July 28, 2025. If your application is approved, you should receive your Full Settlement Relief within one year of the date when you receive your approval decision. If your application is not approved, you should receive instructions on how to “revise and resubmit” your application. If you have questions about this process, please email sweet@ed.gov, with a copy to info@ppsl.org.

    If you do not receive a decision (either an approval or a revise & resubmit notice) by July 28, 2025, please email sweet@ed.gov, with a copy to info@ppsl.org, explaining that you did not get a decision on your application.

  • If you are a Post-Class Applicant (you applied for BD after June 22, 2022, but before November 16, 2022), you should have received notice from the Department confirming your status as a Post-Class Applicant on or before May 28, 2023.

    If you are a Post-Class Applicant and have not yet received notice from the Department of Education confirming your post-class status, please email sweet@ed.gov, with a copy to info@ppsl.org.

    All Post-Class Applicants should receive a decision on their application by January 28, 2026. If your application is approved, you should receive your Full Settlement Relief within one year of the date when you receive your approval notice. If you do not receive a decision by January 28, 2026, you are entitled to Full Settlement Relief. 

    If you are Post-Class Applicant whose BD application relates to loans from ITT Technical Institute, Corinthian Colleges, Westwood, Art Institutes, Marinello School of Beauty, or Colorado locations of CollegeAmerica, then you should receive relief through the Department’s group discharge process. Please see the Department’s announcements in these links for more information about group discharges. If you are a Post-Class Applicant who applied for BD with respect to one of these schools, but you have not yet received notice that you are approved for group discharge relief, please email info@ppsl.organd tell us about your situation.

  • There are two types of FFEL(P) loans: some are held by the government, and some are held by private bank lenders. Loans held by private bank lenders are known as “commercially held FFELs.” 

    FFEL and FFELP loans are considered “federal student loans” for purposes of the settlement. This means that, if you are entitled to relief through the settlement, any FFEL and FFELP loans that were the subject of your BD claim(s) will be discharged. If you consolidated FFEL loans from multiple schools into one or more FFEL consolidation loans, only the portion of the consolidation loan(s) that relates to the school(s) covered by your BD application will be discharged.

    If your FFEL or FFELP loans are commercially held and you made payments on those loans, then you will not be entitled to a refund of those payments. Although both are considered “federal loans” because they were authorized by federal law, payments that you made on commercially held FFEL or FFELP loans were made to bank lenders, not to the Department of Education. For that reason, such payments will not be included in any refund you receive under the Sweet settlement, because the Department of Education does not have the legal authority to refund payments made to commercial lenders.  However, if you consolidated your FFEL or FFELP loans into Direct Loans, then any payments made on the Direct Loans, will be eligible for a refund.

  • If you are a member of the automatic relief group, Decision Group 1, or Decision Group 2 and you consolidated Sweet-eligible and non-Sweet-eligible loans into one or more Direct Consolidation Loans, the entire balance of your “mixed” Direct Consolidation Loan(s) will be discharged, and you will be refunded all payments you made on that loan or loans. If this amount is less than the sum of all payments you made to the Department towards your Sweet-eligible, including payments you made on Sweet-eligible Direct Loans or Department-held FFEL Loans before consolidating, you will be able to claim additional refunds through an administrative process. This process has not been set up yet. We will notify Class Members as soon as they are able to submit requests for further refund calculations. Please check back here for updates.

    If you consolidated Sweet-eligible and non-Sweet-eligible loans into one or more FFEL consolidation loans, only the portion of the consolidation loan(s) that relates to the school(s) covered by your BD application will be discharged.

Class Membership 

  • The settlement defines the class as “all individuals who had a borrower defense application pending as of June 22, 2022.” Additionally, under the settlement, the Department of Education agreed to rescind all borrower defense denials that it issued between December 2019 and October 2020. If you received a form denial notice during that time period, the Department will treat your original application as if it had never been denied and you will be a member of the class.

  • The settlement divides the class—all individuals who had a borrower defense application pending as of June 22, 2022—into two groups.    

    The first group is the automatic relief group. You are a member of this group if you are a Class Member who submitted a borrower defense application relating to a school or schools on this list (often referred to as the “Exhibit C” list). If you are in this group, then you are entitled to the following relief: (i) discharge of the outstanding loans that were the subject of your application, (ii) refunds of any amounts you previously paid to the federal government toward those loans, and (iii) deletion of the credit tradeline associated with those loans from your credit report (“Full Settlement Relief”).

    The original deadline for all members of the automatic relief group to receive Full Settlement Relief was January 28, 2024. The Department of Education failed to meet that deadline, and Plaintiffs have sought enforcement by the court. Please see above “I’m a Sweet Class Member in the automatic relief group, but I have not yet received relief, or I have received less relief than I was expecting” for more information about what to expect if you are in the automatic relief group and have not yet received Full Settlement Relief.

    The second group is the decision group. You are a member of this group if you are a Class Member who submitted a borrower defense application relating to a school or schools that are not on the Exhibit C list. If you are in the decision group, you will receive an individual decision on your entitlement to settlement relief according to a set timeline (see “What happens next for Class Members?” below). 

    If the Department fails to issue a decision within the timeline, you will receive Full Settlement Relief. 

    The Department will use a “streamlined” procedure to evaluate applications of Class Members in the decision group. This means that the Department will accept all allegations in the application as true; will not require further supporting evidence; will not require proof of reliance; and will not apply any statute of limitations. 

    If you are in the decision group and you are determined to be eligible for relief, you will receive Full Settlement Relief (the same benefits as members of the automatic relief group). You will receive this relief within one year of the date you receive your approval decision.  If you have not received relief within one year of the date of your approval, see above.

    If you are in the decision group and the Department determines that your application does not meet the standards for approval under the streamlined procedures, you will receive a “revise and resubmit” notice. This notice will explain why your application was not approved and provide examples of successful applications. You will have six months from receipt of this notice to submit a revised borrower defense application to the Department. If you submit a revised application, the Department will have six months to either grant relief or issue a final denial notice. If you choose not to resubmit, your notice will convert to a final denial upon the expiration of the six-month resubmission window. If your application is denied, you have the right to challenge that denial in federal court.  

    If you submitted a borrower defense application related to a Corinthian Colleges school, please see the Corinthian question below.

  • If you applied for borrower defense after June 22, 2022, but before November 16, 2022 (the date of final approval of the settlement), then you are not a member of the class as defined in the settlement agreement. Instead, you are a “Post-Class Applicant.” 

    The settlement provides certain benefits to Post-Class Applicants. Under the settlement, Post-Class Applicants will receive decisions on their applications by January 28, 2026. If the Department fails to provide any Post-Class Applicant with a decision during that time period, then they will receive Full Settlement Relief (the same relief as if they were a Class Member in the decision group who did not receive a timely decision). 

    Post-Class Applicants will receive individual decisions on their applications regardless of whether they borrowed money to attend a school on the Exhibit C list. In other words, even if you attended a school on the list, you will not receive automatic relief if you applied for borrower defense after June 22, 2022, but before November 16, 2022. Post-Class Applicants also will not have their applications reviewed under the “streamlined” procedures applicable to Class Members in the decision group. 

    Post-Class Applicants will have the credit tradelines for their discharged loans deleted from their credit reports if their borrower defense applications are approved. Post-Class Applicants will not automatically get refunds if their applications are approved, but they might get refunds depending on their individual circumstances. In general, the Department of Education applies a statute of limitations to decide whether a successful borrower defense applicant will get a refund along with discharge. The Department agreed that the limitations period would not apply to Class Members, but it will apply to Post-Class Applicants. Whether a Post-Class Applicant gets a refund will therefore depend on the facts in their application. 

  • If you applied for borrower defense after November 16, 2022, then you are not affected by the Sweet settlement. Your application will be decided by the Department according to the applicable regulations.

  • Yes! If your school misled you, violated state laws, or engaged in other misconduct that affected your decision to borrow federal student loans, you can still apply for borrower defense. However, if you apply for borrower defense now (any time after November 16, 2022), no aspect of the settlement will affect your application. Borrowers can apply for borrower defense here. For an informational guide on applying for borrower defense, click here. 

    You can apply for borrower defense even if you are currently enrolled in the school you would be applying for. Borrower defense can apply to any federal student loan that has already been disbursed.

  • In order to get settlement relief relating to Parent Plus loans, a parent must have applied for borrower defense separately from their child (the student), even if the student is already included in the class.  

    If you are a parent borrower, and you applied for borrower defense to repayment of a Parent Plus loan on or before June 22, 2022, you are a member of the class. If you applied for borrower defense for a Parent Plus loan after June 22, 2022, and before November 16, 2022, you are a Post-Class Applicant.   

    Parent borrowers can and should apply for borrower defense if they have not already, even though the time has passed to receive any benefit related to the settlement. Parent borrowers can apply for borrower defense here. For an informational guide on applying for borrower defense, click here. In their applications, parents should specify that they are applying in relation to the loan they took out for the school that the student attended, and they should detail the school misconduct that the student experienced. If the student loans were discharge, the parent should also mention that in their application.

Settlement Relief

  • Here is a timeline of important upcoming events for Class Members and Post-Class Applicants: 

    For the automatic relief group:

    If you have non-consolidated Direct Loans and/or FFEL(P) loans, you should have already received Full Settlement relief. If you have either or both of these loan types and have NOT received Full Settlement relief, please email sweet@ed.gov, with a copy to info@ppsl.org, and let us know what relief you are missing.

    August 31, 2024: If you have Direct Consolidation Loan(s) that include your Sweet-related debt and have not yet received Full Settlement Relief, then you should expect to see your full current loan balance(s) discharged by this date. Also, by this date, the Department should issue you a refund for all amounts you paid on your most recent consolidation loan(s).

    If you believe that you are entitled to a further refund for payments you made to the Department on earlier iterations of your BD-related loans (i.e., before your most recent consolidation loan was disbursed), the Department will be setting up a process for you to request your additional refund. Please check this space and watch out for emails from PPSL for further updates regarding the consolidation loan refund process.

    If you are not sure what type(s) of loans you have, please see the guidance under “Does the type of federal student loan I have (Direct, FFEL, Consolidated, etc.) affect my settlement relief?”

    For the decision group:

    July 28, 2023: If you submitted your BD application on or before December 31, 2017, you should have received a decision by this date. If you did not, please fill out our Class Notice Survey.

    January 28, 2024: If you submitted your BD application between January 1, 2018, and December 31, 2018, you should have received a decision by this date. If you did not, please fill out our Class Notice Survey.

    July 28, 2024: If you submitted your BD application between January 1, 2019, and December 31, 2019, you should receive a decision by this date. 

    July 28, 2024: Decision group members in group 1 (applied on or before December 31, 2017) should receive Full Settlement Relief by this date. If you do not receive Full Settlement Relief by this date, please email sweet@ed.gov, with a copy to info@ppsl.org, explaining which type(s) of relief (discharge, refund, credit repair) you are missing.

    January 28, 2025: If you submitted your BD application between January 1, 2020, and December 31, 2020, you should receive a decision by this date. 

    July 28, 2025: If you submitted your BD application between January 1, 2021, and June 22, 2022, you should receive a decision by this date. 

    If your application is granted, then within one year after you receive the decision, you should receive your Full Settlement Relief.

    For Post-Class Applicants:

    May 28, 2023: You should have received notice from the Department confirming your status as a Post-Class Applicant on or before this date.

    If you are a Post-Class Applicant and have not yet received notice from the Department of Education confirming your post-class status, we want to raise this with the Department. Please fill out our Class Notice Survey.

    January 28, 2026: You should receive a decision on your application by this date.

  • Please note that this notice may have been sent to an email you no longer have access to or your spam folder. Before filling out the survey, please search every email inbox you have access to for an email from noreply@studentaid.gov. The email might have one of the following subject lines, as appropriate for your situation:

    Approval of Your Borrower Defense Case Under Exhibit C of the Sweet v. Cardona Settlement

    Sweet v. Cardona Settlement: Borrower Defense Notice to Revise and Resubmit

    Sweet v. Cardona Settlement: Borrower Defense Notice of Approval

    Sweet v. Cardona Settlement Post-Class Applicant Borrower Defense Notice

    If you are unable to locate a notice after searching for it, please fill out our Class Notice Survey.  

  • Under the Settlement Agreement, the Department was required to effectuate settlement relief for Class Members in the automatic relief group by January 28, 2024. However, we are aware that many members of the automatic relief group did not receive Full Settlement Relief by that date. On March 19, 2024, we filed a motion with the court to compel the Department to comply with the settlement. Updates on the status of that motion can be found on the Sweet v. Cardona case page. 

    FSA ombudsman Bonnie Latreille has been designated as the official point of contact at the Department of Education for class members to direct questions about the status of their relief. Class members can direct questions about the status of their settlement relief to Bonnie and her team at sweet@ed.gov. 

    The Department currently claims that it has completed Full Settlement Relief for nearly all automatic relief group members who had non-consolidated Direct Loans and FFEL(P) loans. If you have either or both of those loan types and have not yet received Full Settlement relief, please email sweet@ed.gov, with a copy to info@ppsl.org, and let us know what relief you are missing.  

    For automatic relief group members with Direct Consolidation Loans who have not yet received Full Settlement Relief, the Department has agreed to the following measures:  

    • By August 31, 2024, the Department will discharge the full balance of your current consolidation loan(s) and will issue you a refund for any amounts you paid on those most recent consolidation loan(s). 

    • If you do not receive your discharge and (where applicable) refund by this date, please email sweet@ed.gov, with a copy to info@ppsl.org, explaining which type(s) of relief you are missing. 

    • Some borrowers will be entitled to a further refund for payments made to the Department on earlier iterations of their BD-related loans (i.e., before the most recent consolidation loan(s) were disbursed). Refunds for past payments on consolidated loans will be proportional to the share of your consolidation loan that consisted of Relevant Loan Debt (for example, if your consolidation loan was made up of 50% Relevant Loan Debt and 50% other loans, you would receive a refund of 50% of your payments made). The Department will be setting up a process for these borrowers to request their additional refunds. Please check this space and watch out for emails from PPSL for further updates regarding the consolidation loan refund process.

    We are unable to answer individual questions about refund amounts owed to Class Members. While we cannot confirm whether the amount you expect to be refunded is accurate, historically the Department of Education has sometimes disbursed refunds incrementally, via multiple different checks.

  • Regardless of your type of loan, if the Department garnished from your wages and/or took from your income tax refunds in connection with the loans that were the subject of your borrower defense application, those garnishments will be refunded.

  • No, to receive Sweet relief, you must have submitted a borrower defense application for each school for which you were requesting a discharge. You can still submit a borrower defense application for the other Exhibit C school(s) you attended, but that application will be decided under the applicable regulations, not under the Sweet settlement procedures.

End of COVID Payment Pause 

  • No. 

    The Department will hold Class Members in forbearance or stopped collection status, and will reimburse you for any accrual of interest, until you receive your settlement relief or, where applicable for members of the decision group, until a decision denying settlement relief becomes final. For Direct Loans, this should happen automatically; for commercially held FFEL loans, you may have to notify your servicer that you are eligible for an administrative forbearance based on borrower defense. 

    If you are a Post-Class Applicant or if you applied for borrower defense after November 16, 2022, you can still ask your servicer to place your loans in borrower defense forbearance until you receive a decision. However, like with other types of forbearance, interest will still accrue on your loans while your BD application is pending. Whether you receive a refund of that interest upon resolution of your borrower defense application will depend on the applicable regulations. 

    Please note, Sweet / administrative forbearance will not apply to federal student loans that were not covered by your borrower defense application. If you have loans from another school that weren’t the subject of your application, those will return to repayment status. Additionally, neither the Sweet case nor applying for borrower defense in relation to your federal loans will impact any private loans you may have from the school for which you applied for borrower defense.

  • While servicers should know about Sweet relief and borrower defense forbearance, sometimes servicer representatives do not have the appropriate or accurate information. If this happens, reach out to sweet@ed.gov and your servicer’s ombudsman’s office. Regardless of what your servicer says, if you received a notice from the Department about this settlement, that is the most accurate statement regarding your Sweet relief.    

  • If you are a Class Member (in the automatic relief or decision group) you will not owe any interest on your Direct or FFEL loans for the period between final approval and the date you receive your discharge or final decision. During that time, you may see interest appear on your account. This is due to internal Department of Education processes. Any interest that appears during this time will ultimately be removed even if, for decision group Class Members, your application is eventually denied.

    If you are a Post-Class Applicant who elects to remain in a borrower defense forbearance, interest will accrue on your loans while you await a decision. If your borrower defense application is ultimately approved, that interest will be discharged, subject to applicable regulations. If your application is denied, the interest will remain on your account.

    The Sweet litigation cannot prevent interest from accruing on private loans. If you’re not sure whether you have private loans, you can call your servicer and ask, or you can cross-reference your credit report with your Federal Student Aid (FSA) information.

Details of the Settlement for Different Types of Loans 

  • If you previously consolidated your federal student loans into a Direct Consolidation Loan or a FFEL Consolidation Loan (which allow you to combine multiple federal loans into one), then you will still get the settlement relief to which you would otherwise be entitled if you hadn’t consolidated. You can see whether you have a Direct Consolidation Loan or FFEL Consolidation Loan by logging into your account with Federal Student Aid or your federal loan servicer.  

    If you have Direct Consolidation Loan(s) that include Relevant Loan Debt, you will be eligible for a refund of certain payments you made on those loans, even if the loans you consolidated were originally FFEL loans.

    There are two types of FFEL(P) loans: some are held by the government, and some are held by private bank lenders. Loans held by private bank lenders are known as “commercially held FFELs.” 

    FFEL and FFELP loans are considered “federal student loans” for purposes of the settlement. This means that, if you are entitled to relief through the settlement, any FFEL and FFELP loans that were the subject of your BD claim(s) will be discharged. If you consolidated FFEL loans from multiple schools into one or more FFEL consolidation loans, only the portion of the consolidation loan(s) that relates to the school(s) covered by your BD application will be discharged.

    If your FFEL or FFELP loans are commercially held and you made payments on those loans, then you will not be entitled to a refund of those payments. Although both are considered “federal loans” because they were authorized by federal law, payments that you made on commercially held FFEL or FFELP loans were made to bank lenders, not to the Department of Education. For that reason, such payments will not be included in any refund you receive under the Sweet settlement, because the Department of Education does not have the legal authority to refund payments made to commercial lenders.  However, if you consolidated your FFEL or FFELP loans into Direct Loans, then any payments made on the Direct Loans, will be eligible for a refund.

    If you are currently having problems with your servicer related to billing on a Direct or FFEL Consolidation Loan that includes Sweet-eligible loans, please email sweet@ed.gov,  with a description of the problem. 

    If you previously consolidated your federal student loans into a private consolidation loan – for example, with a lender such as SoFi, Earnest, or CommonBond – then you will receive some settlement relief in certain circumstances.  If you refinanced Direct Loan(s) or government-held FFEL loan(s) with a private refinancer AFTER you applied for borrower defense with respect to those loans, then you WILL get a refund of the amount paid to the government by the refinancer. However, you will still owe your private lender any outstanding balance that you have with that lender, and the refinanced loan will continue to appear on your credit report unless and until it is paid off. (The Department of Education does not have the legal authority to discharge loans that are currently held by a private lender, even if those loans were originated as federal loans.) If you refinanced with a private lender BEFORE you applied for borrower defense, then you will not receive settlement relief.

    For a more detailed view of your federal student loans and grants, you can download your National Student Loan Data Systems profile which contains your federal loan and grant history, including information on federal loan type (i.e., Direct, Perkins, or FFEL). This profile does NOT include private loans. Please find instructions on how to download it here.

  • If you previously consolidated your federal student loans into a Direct Consolidation Loan or a FFEL Consolidation Loan (which allow you to combine multiple federal loans into one), then you will still get the settlement relief to which you would otherwise be entitled if you hadn’t consolidated. You can see whether you have a Direct Consolidation Loan or FFEL Consolidation Loan by logging into your account with Federal Student Aid or your federal loan servicer. 

    If you have one or more Direct Consolidation Loans that include Sweet-eligible loans, you will be eligible for a refund of certain payments you made on those loans, even if the loans you consolidated were originally FFEL loans. For details regarding refunds on Direct Consolidation Loans, please see above under “I am a class member, and I am unsure what relief I am owed on my consolidation loans.” If you have FFEL(P) Consolidation Loan(s), you might not be eligible for a refund of payments you made on those loans (see details regarding FFEL(P) loans above).

    If you are currently having problems with your servicer related to billing on a Direct or FFEL Consolidation Loan that includes Sweet-eligible loans, please contact sweet@ed.gov with a description of the problem.

    If you previously consolidated your federal student loans into a private consolidation loan – for example, with a lender such as SoFi, Earnest, or CommonBond – then you will receive some settlement relief in certain circumstances.  If you refinanced Direct Loan(s) or government-held FFEL loan(s) with a private refinancer AFTER you applied for borrower defense with respect to those loans, then you WILL get a refund of the amount paid to the government by the refinancer. However, you will still owe your private lender any outstanding balance that you have with that lender, and the refinanced loan will continue to appear on your credit report unless and until it is paid off. (The Department of Education does not have the legal authority to discharge loans that are currently held by a private lender, even if those loans were originated as federal loans.) If you refinanced with a private lender BEFORE you applied for borrower defense, then you will not receive settlement relief.

  • First, you do not have to consolidate any of your loans in order to receive Sweet relief. If anyone tries to tell you otherwise, it could be a scam.

    If you want or need to consolidate your current federal loans for another reason (such as enrollment in an income-driven repayment plan or Public Service Loan Forgiveness), you can consolidate into a federal Direct Consolidation Loan. If you are a Class Member or a Post-Class Applicant, federal consolidation will not change the relief you are eligible for under the Sweet settlement.

    Consolidating any federal loans into a private loan (with a lender such as SoFi, Earnest, or CommonBond or, for example, a private loan with Navient) could waive certain rights you have with respect to your federal loans. The National Consumer Law Center warns, “It is dangerous to consolidate federal loans into a private consolidation loan. If you consolidate into a private loan, you lose the rights you have under the federal loan program, including rights to cancel or reduce your loan payments. Private lenders may even offer you bonuses if you agree to consolidate with them, but this may not be the right choice for you. Read the fine print!”

Interaction of Sweet With Other Discharges/Benefits 

  • No, you cannot get credit toward PSLF if you are in borrower-defense-related administrative forbearance. If you want to keep making qualifying payments toward PSLF, you can opt out of administrative forbearance by contacting your loan servicer and telling them that you want to resume payments under a qualifying PSLF payment plan. If you end up receiving Sweet relief before your PSLF is granted, you should receive a refund of any amounts paid to the Department of Education toward Direct or Direct Consolidation loans, including a refund of prior qualifying PSLF payments. (This does not include refunds of payments on commercially held FFEL loans.)

  • On June 1, 2022 – shortly before the parties in the Sweet case reached a settlement – the Department announced that it would cancel all outstanding loans related to Corinthian schools, including for people who had not already applied for borrower defense.

    Class Members who applied for borrower defense for their Corinthian-related loans will have their loans discharged through the Corinthian group discharge process announced by the Department of Education on June 1, 2022. These individuals will receive the same relief as other Class Members in the automatic discharge group (full discharge, refunds of payment to the Department, and deletion of the credit tradeline).

    If you are a Class Member who applied for a Corinthian school, and have not receive Full Settlement Relief, please email sweet@ed.gov, with a copy to info@ppsl.org, and let us know what relief you are missing.

    If you are a Class Member who attended one of these schools before Corinthian ownership, your application will be placed into the decision group, and you will receive a decision within the applicable time frame.

    If you are a Post-Class Applicant who attended Everest, Heald, or Wyotech, you will receive relief through the Corinthian group discharge process and will not have to wait for a decision on your BD application.

  • If you are a Class Member, the Department of Education’s announcements about ITT, Westwood, the Art Institute, and certain CollegeAmerica students receiving cancellation of their federal student loans do not change the relief that you will receive. Because ITT, Westwood, Art Institute, and CollegeAmerica are all on the settlement agreement’s Exhibit C list, you are still considered part of the automatic discharge group and you should have received Full Settlement Relief by August 31, 2024. If you have not received full settlement relief, please email sweet@ed.gov, with a copy to info@ppsl.org, and let us know what relief you are missing.

    If you are a Post-Class Applicant and you are eligible for the ITT, Westwood, Art Institute, or CollegeAmerica group discharge, you should receive relief through the Department’s group discharge process for your school and will not have to wait for a decision on your BD application. If you are a Post-Class Applicant who has not yet received a discharge of your ITT, Westwood, or CollegeAmerica loans, we are interested in hearing from you. Please visit our Get Help page.

  • Some Class Members may currently be receiving assistance from SNAP/Food Stamps, Social Security, or similar public benefits programs. If you are getting public assistance and you receive a refund, you should be aware that the refund may impact your eligibility for benefits. Eligibility is different depending on the type of benefits you receive, whether it is state or federal, and which state you live in.

    You can visit the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA) for assistance. NAELA attorneys, although specializing in legal issues for those who are 65 and older and/or are disabled, have experience in and information on how refunds like this can affect eligibility for public assistance. Lastly, you can look here to find your local legal aid office.

  • Under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, all student loan discharges are federally tax-free until December 31, 2025. That includes discharges under this settlement. However, if your loans are discharged after January 1, 2026, even pursuant to the Sweet settlement, there may be federal income tax implications and you should consult with a tax advisor, unless Congress extends the tax exemption beyond 2025.

    If you are a Post-Class Applicant and you receive student loan cancellation after January 1, 2026, your discharge should still be federally tax-free under IRS Revenue Procedure 2015-57, which provides that the IRS will not assert that federal student loans discharged under the borrower defense to repayment process qualify as recognizable gross income. As always, you should consult with a tax advisor.

    State income tax policies with respect to student loan discharges may vary. If you have questions about state income taxes, we recommend that you seek out resources from your state of residence and contact a tax advisor.

  • The Sweet settlement does not reinstate GI benefits applied to attend the school that was the subject of your borrower defense application.

    The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has information on the restoration of benefits after school closure, or if a school is disapproved for GI Bill benefits, here.

  • The Sweet settlement itself does not have a specific provision for Pell eligibility restoration. However, Class Members and Post-Class Applicants who receive settlement relief may be eligible for full or partial restoration of Pell eligibility under a new law that went into effect on July 1, 2024.

    This law, which is part of the FAFSA Simplification Act, restores Pell eligibility for any period in which a student received a federal student loan that was later discharged under the Secretary of Education’s authority to “compromise, waive, or release” a loan obligation—a legal provision which forms the basis for settlement relief.

Class Membership Troubleshooting 

  • To ensure that you continue to receive timely information about the settlement, please update your contact information in your Federal Student Aid (FSA) profile. Log in to your account and navigate to the “Settings” page under your email address, phone number, or address. This is how the Department of Education will determine where to send you information and any potential refunds. For more information, visit the FSA’s help center page on this matter.

    You should also make sure to keep your servicer up to date regarding your contact information. If you’re not sure who your servicer is, this FSA webpage explains and helps you identify your servicer.

  • PPSL is aware of the problems with the BD application website, and we have raised this concern with the Department of Education. If you had trouble with the online BD application and it affected your ability to qualify for class or post-class membership, please email sweet@ed.gov, with a copy to info@ppsl.org, with a description of what happened and copies of any evidence you might have saved (e.g., screenshots).

  • PPSL is aware of this issue, and we have raised it with the Department of Education. If you applied for borrower defense but have had trouble tracking your application, or have experienced errors in the Department’s record-keeping, please email sweet@ed.gov, with a copy to info@ppsl.org.

  • The class is represented by the non-profit legal services organization, The Project on Predatory Student Lending (PPSL). To contact PPSL, you should complete the form in the Get Help Tab at the top of the webpage. If you cannot fill out the form, you may call 617-390-2574. Please note, we cannot provide individual legal advice. Please note that due to the high volume of communications we receive, all communications are reviewed but we are not always able to respond.