New ED Status Report Shows Growing Backlog of PSLF Buyback Applications
By Maria Carrasco, NASFAA Staff Reporter
A new legal filing from the Department of Education (ED) shows an uptick in the backlog of Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) buyback applications, along with progress in processing income-driven repayment (IDR) applications.
On Monday, ED filed a new status report detailing the number of pending and outstanding IDR and PSLF applications for the period February 1- 28. This ongoing monthly status report is part of the department’s agreement with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT).
The filing showed that as of February 28, 2026, ED has a backlog of 88,170 PSLF Buyback applications. That’s a gain of nearly 5,000 applications compared to two months ago, when the backlog was 83,370. Additionally, in the month of February, ED received 4,180 PSLF buyback applications, but decided on (approved or denied) 2,520 applications.
As for IDR applications, ED received 243,258 applications in February. During this most recent period, the department made a decision on 329,169 IDR applications. As of February 28, 2026, there are 576,609 pending IDR applications. Notably, the backlog of pending IDR applications has decreased by over 150,000 in the past two months. Earlier in January, ED reported a backlog of 734,221 IDR applications as of December 31, 2025.
Stay tuned to Today’s News for more updates on ED’s processing of IDR and PSLF buyback applications.
Publication Date: 3/17/2026
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