Loan Forbearance

AmeriCorps Members are eligible to apply to temporarily postpone the repayment of their qualified student loans through an action called Loan Forbearance.

If your request is approved and your loan is in forbearance during your term of service, interest continues to accrue. However, if you successfully complete your term of service, you can apply to have the National Service Trust (aka AmeriCorps) pay all or a portion of the interest that accrued on your qualified student loans during your service period.

After you finish your term of service, you will be responsible for repaying your loan according to the terms of the loan.

Eligibility for Forbearance

Individuals, in approved AmeriCorps positions, are eligible for forbearance for most federally-backed student loans. All City Year AmeriCorps Members positions are approved positions and are eligible to apply for forbearance. When you submit a request for loan forbearance, the Corporation for National and Community Service only verifies that you are in an approved national service position, they cannot approve or disapprove forbearance requests.

Only your loan holder can determine if your loan is eligible and approve a request for forbearance. . If your loan holder tells you that your student loan does not qualify for forbearance based upon your national service, ask if your service qualifies you for some other type of forbearance or for a deferment.

If your loan is in default, it may not be eligible for forbearance. However, if you have loans that went into default before you began your national service, you can attempt to negotiate an arrangement with the loan holder or collection agency to bring the loan out of default so forbearance can be granted and interest can be paid.

The corps operations team will support you with applying for loan forbearance once you start the program.