PSLF Buyback: Reclaiming the SAVE Forbearance Months You Lost

Updated June 2026

If you’re pursuing Public Service Loan Forgiveness and spent 2024–2025 in the SAVE litigation forbearance, there’s a hole in your payment count: those months didn’t count toward your 120. For many borrowers that’s 12–18 missing months — more than a year added to the forgiveness date.

PSLF Buyback exists to fill exactly that hole.

What Buyback is

Buyback lets you make a payment now to “purchase” PSLF credit for past months that were spent in certain forbearances or deferments — provided you were employed full-time by a qualifying employer during those months. You pay what you would have owed under your income-driven plan for each month bought back.

Who it helps most

Borrowers near the finish line. If buyback months would complete your 120, you have the most to gain — people have reached forgiveness this way.
SAVE forbearance borrowers. The litigation forbearance is buyback-eligible time.
Low-payment borrowers. If your IDR payment during those months would have been $0–$50, you’re buying full PSLF months for almost nothing.

How to file

Confirm your qualifying employment covers the forbearance months (submit/update your PSLF employment certification first).
Check your payment count on your StudentAid.gov dashboard and identify the gap months.
Submit the buyback request through your StudentAid.gov account (details here).
If approved, you’ll get a binding agreement stating the amount; pay it within 90 days.

The catch

Buyback requests have a significant processing backlog — roughly 88,000 applications were pending as of spring 2026, and real-world processing often takes 6–12 months despite ED’s 45-business-day target. You also generally must have 120 months of certified qualifying employment already on record for the request to complete forgiveness. If you’re only a few months short of 120, you may reach forgiveness through regular qualifying payments before the buyback is even processed — keep paying on a qualifying plan rather than waiting on it. If you’re mid-journey, document everything now — certify employment annually so the buyback math is ready when you need it.

Not sure you’re on a qualifying track at all? Check your PSLF eligibility first.