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Total and Permanent Disability Discharge

Eligibility Requirements*

The following are general eligibility requirements for all borrowers seeking a Total and Permanent Disability Discharge:

  • You (or your representative) must complete and submit to your lender(s) a Loan Discharge Application: Total and Permanent Disability.
  • Your loan discharge application must include certification by a doctor of medicine or osteopathy, legally authorized to practice in a state, that you are totally and permanently disabled. For loan discharge purposes, totally and permanently disabled means you are unable to work and earn money because of an injury or illness that is expected to continue indefinitely or result in death. You must submit the application to your lender within 90 days of the date your physician certifies the application.
  • If your lender, TG, and the U.S. Department of Education make a preliminary determination that you meet the requirements for a total and permanent disability discharge, your loan will be placed in a conditional discharge period. This 3-year period begins on the date your physician completed and certified your discharge application. If you receive a new loan under the Perkins, FFEL, or Direct Loan Programs (with the exception of a Consolidation loan that does not include any loans that are in a conditional discharge status) within the conditional discharge period, you are not eligible for discharge on that loan or any loan made prior to that date.
  • If you apply for discharge of a Consolidation loan, you must meet the requirements for total and permanent disability discharge for all of the loans that make up that Consolidation loan, including any non-FFELP loans such as loans through the Perkins or HEAL programs.

* If you provide documentation of having been determined by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to be unemployable due to a service-connected condition, you will be considered permanently and totally disabled for the purposes of discharging your loan(s).

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