A TPD discharge relieves you from having to repay a William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan (Direct Loan) Program loan, Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program loan, and/or Federal Perkins Loan (Perkins Loan) Program loan or complete a TEACH Grant service obligation on the basis of your total and permanent disability. Before your federal student loans or TEACH Grant service obligation can be discharged, you must provide information to the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to show that you are totally and permanently disabled. ED will evaluate the information and determine if you qualify for a TPD discharge.

You can show that you are totally and permanently disabled in one of the following three ways:

1. If you are a veteran, you can submit documentation from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) showing that the VA has determined that you are unemployable due to a service-connected disability.
2. If you are receiving Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits, you can submit a Social Security Administration (SSA) notice of award for SSDI or SSI benefits stating that your next scheduled disability review will be within five to seven years from the date of your most recent SSA disability determination.
3. You can submit certification from a physician that you are totally and permanently disabled. Your physician must certify that you are unable to engage in any substantial gainful activity by reason of a medically determinable physical or mental impairment that
   • Can be expected to result in death
   • Has lasted for a continuous period of not less than 60 months
   • Can be expected to last for a continuous period of not less than 60 months

If you, the borrower, die, then your federal student loans will be discharged. If you are a parent PLUS loan borrower, then the loan may be discharged if you die, or if the student on whose behalf you obtained the loan dies.

The loan will be discharged if a family member or other representative provides a certified copy of the death certificate to the school (for a Federal Perkins Loan) or to the loan servicer (for a Direct Loan or FFEL Program loan). For more information, contact your loan servicer.

This is not an automatic process—you must prove to the bankruptcy court that repaying your student loan would cause undue hardship.

If you file Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy, you may have your loan discharged in bankruptcy only if the bankruptcy court finds that repayment would impose undue hardship on you and your dependents. This must be decided in an adversary proceeding in bankruptcy court. Your creditors may be present to challenge the request. The court uses this three-part test to determine hardship:

• If you are forced to repay the loan, you would not be able to maintain a minimal standard of living.
• There is evidence that this hardship will continue for a significant portion of the loan repayment period.
• You made good-faith efforts to repay the loan before filing bankruptcy (usually this means you have been in repayment for a minimum of five years).

You may be eligible for discharge of your Direct Loans and FFEL Program loans under either of these circumstances:

• Your school closes while you're enrolled, and you do not complete your program because of the closure. Any federal student loan obtained to pay your cost of attendance at that school could be discharged. If you were on an approved leave of absence, you are considered to have been enrolled at the school.
• Your school closes within 90 days after you withdraw.

You are not eligible for discharge of your Direct Loans or FFEL Program loans if your school closes and any of the following is true:

• You withdraw more than 90 days before the school closes.
• You are completing a comparable educational program at another school. If you complete such a program at another school after your loan is discharged, you might have to pay back the amount of the discharge.
• You have completed all the coursework for the program, but you have not received a diploma or certificate.

To receive a closed school discharge application, contact your loan servicer.

For answers to questions about your closed school, call the appropriate person on the list of Closed School Customer Service Contacts.

You might need your academic records if you plan to attend another school and want to have your coursework at the closed school taken into consideration. So it will be important for you to obtain your academic and financial aid records if your school closes. Contact the state licensing agency in the state in which the school was located to ask whether the state made arrangements to keep the records. The records might also be useful in substantiating your claim for a loan discharge.

You may be eligible for a discharge of your Direct Loan or FFEL Program loan in these circumstances:

• Your school falsely certified your eligibility to receive the loan based on your ability to benefit from its training, and you did not meet the ability to benefit student eligibility requirements.
• The school signed your name on the application or promissory note without your authorization or the school endorsed your loan check or signed your authorization for electronic funds transfer without your knowledge, unless the proceeds of the loan were delivered to you or applied to charges owed by you to the school.
• Your loan was falsely certified because you were a victim of identity theft.
• The school certified your eligibility, but because of a physical or mental condition, age, criminal record, or other reason you are disqualified from employment in the occupation in which you were being trained.

You may be eligible for a discharge of your Direct Loan or FFEL Program loan if you withdrew from school, but the school didn’t pay a refund that it owed to the U.S. Department of Education or to the lender, as appropriate. Check with the school to see how refund policies apply to federal aid at the school.

Only the amount of the unpaid refund will be discharged. You may qualify for this partial discharge whether the school is closed or open. Contact your loan servicer for more information.

If you are a teacher and also a new borrower (i.e., you did not have an outstanding balance on a Direct Loan or FFEL Program loan on Oct. 1, 1998, or on the date you obtained a Direct Loan or FFEL Program loan after Oct. 1, 1998) and have been teaching full-time in a low-income elementary or secondary school or educational service agency for five consecutive years, you may be able to have as much as $17,500 of your subsidized or unsubsidized loans forgiven. Your PLUS loans cannot be included. For more information, go to Teacher Loan Forgiveness. If you have a Federal Perkins Loan, see Perkins Loan Cancellation for teacher cancellation in that loan program.

If you are employed in certain public service jobs and have made 120 payments on your Direct Loans (after Oct. 1, 2007), the remaining balance that you owe may be forgiven. Only payments made under certain repayment plans may be counted toward the required 120 payments. You must not be in default on the loans that are forgiven. For more information, go to Public Service Loan Forgiveness.

The following Federal Perkins Loan Program cancellations apply to individuals who perform certain types of public service or are employed in certain occupations.

For each complete year of service, a percentage of the loan may be canceled. The total percentage of the loan that can be canceled depends on the type of service performed. Depending on the type of loan you have, and when that loan was taken out, you may be eligible to cancel part of or your entire loan if you have served as one of the following:

• Volunteer in the Peace Corps or ACTION program (including VISTA)
• Teacher
• Member of the U.S. armed forces (serving in area of hostilities)
• Nurse or medical technician
• Law enforcement or corrections officer
• Head Start worker
• Child or family services worker
• Professional provider of early intervention services

There is no standard application form for Perkins Loan cancellations. Contact the school that you were attending when you received the loan.

To view the Perkins Loan Cancellation and Discharge Summary Chart, go to Forgiveness, Cancellation, and Discharge Charts.