General Forbearance Request: How to Apply, Costs, and Alternatives

To submit a general forbearance request on your federal student loans, contact your loan servicer and complete the General Forbearance Request form (OMB No. 1845-0018), available on studentaid.gov or from your servicer directly.¹ Approval is discretionary, so how clearly you document your hardship matters. If granted, forbearance pauses or reduces your payments for up to 12 months, but interest keeps accruing on every loan type, including subsidized loans.²

How to Submit the Request

Start by identifying your servicer. Log in at studentaid.gov and your dashboard lists the name and contact information for each servicer handling your loans. If more than one servicer holds your loans, you’ll submit a separate request to each.

You can usually request forbearance three ways: the PDF form mailed or uploaded, your servicer’s online portal, or a phone call. Check what your servicer accepts before printing anything. The form asks for your account number, the reason for your hardship, and the period you’re requesting.

Because the decision is discretionary, specifics carry the request. The form itself states, “Your loan holder has sole discretion in whether to grant your general forbearance request, and, if granted, for what period your forbearance will be applied.”¹ Gather supporting materials before you fill anything out:

Income documentation such as recent pay stubs, a layoff notice, or proof of unemployment benefits.
Medical evidence, such as hospital bills, insurance statements, or a note from your doctor if illness caused the hardship.
A short, honest explanation of why you can’t make payments right now and when you expect that to change.

The hardship statement doesn’t need to be long, but it should be concrete. “I was laid off in March and my unemployment benefits cover rent but leave no room for loan payments; I expect to return to work within six months” gives a servicer more to work with than “I’m having financial difficulties.” If you mail the form, use tracking. If you submit online, save the confirmation.

Each approval covers up to one year.³ You can request another period when that one ends, and most servicers allow up to three cumulative years of general forbearance over the life of the loan.

Keep Paying Until You’re Approved

Your monthly payment stays due until the servicer officially approves the forbearance. Stopping payment before the approval arrives can get the account reported as delinquent. Call your servicer after submitting to confirm they received the request and to ask how long processing will take.

If you genuinely can’t pay while waiting, say so during that call. Some servicers can backdate the forbearance to cover the review period, but it isn’t guaranteed. Submitting early, before a payment gets missed, is the safest move. Once a decision is made, you’ll get written confirmation of the forbearance period, the terms, and when repayment resumes.

During an approved forbearance, your servicer reports the account to the credit bureaus with a special comment indicating forbearance rather than as delinquent.⁴ That protection is one of the main reasons to get formal approval rather than simply skipping payments.

What Forbearance Actually Costs

Forbearance stops your payments, not the interest clock. Interest accrues on every federal loan type during forbearance, including Direct Subsidized Loans that receive an interest subsidy during deferment.² On a $30,000 balance at 5 percent interest, a 12-month forbearance adds roughly $1,500 in unpaid interest.

When the forbearance ends, that unpaid interest capitalizes: it gets added to your principal balance.⁵ Future interest then accrues on the higher balance. Over the remaining life of a 10- or 20-year loan, a single capitalization event can cost thousands.

You can limit that damage. You’re allowed to make payments during forbearance without penalty.⁶ Even small interest-only payments during the pause are the most effective way to prevent capitalization. If a lump-sum interest payment when the forbearance ends is feasible, that works too.

How Forbearance Affects PSLF and IDR Forgiveness

Months spent in general forbearance normally do not count toward the 120 qualifying payments for Public Service Loan Forgiveness or toward income-driven repayment forgiveness timelines. Paused months aren’t repayment months. For borrowers on a forgiveness track, every forbearance month pushes the forgiveness date back, which is often a stronger reason than interest to look at alternatives first.

One historical exception: under the IDR Account Adjustment, the Department of Education credited certain past forbearance periods toward IDR and PSLF for eligible borrowers, specifically periods of 12 or more consecutive months in forbearance or 36 or more cumulative months.⁷ If you’ve had significant past forbearance, check your account at studentaid.gov to see whether those months were credited.

Check Whether You Qualify for Mandatory Forbearance First

If you fit into a mandatory forbearance category, your servicer has to approve it. That’s a materially better position than asking for a discretionary approval. Federal regulations require servicers to grant forbearance when the borrower meets any of these conditions:³

Serving in a position that earns a national service education award, such as AmeriCorps.
Performing qualifying teaching service under the teacher loan forgiveness program.
Serving in a medical or dental internship or residency that must be completed before professional practice.
Performing service that qualifies for partial repayment through a Department of Defense student loan repayment program.
National Guard members on active state duty for more than 30 consecutive days who qualify for a post-active duty deferment but not a military service deferment.
Total monthly federal student loan payments equal to or greater than 20 percent of total monthly gross income, for up to three years.

If any of these apply, ask your servicer to process a mandatory forbearance rather than a general one.

Better Options to Consider Before Forbearance

General forbearance is worth using when nothing else fits, but two alternatives are frequently the better move.

Deferment

Deferment also pauses payments, with one important advantage: on Direct Subsidized Loans, the government pays the interest during deferment.² That means no accrual and no capitalization on those loans. Qualifying reasons include unemployment, economic hardship, returning to school at least half-time, and active military service. If you qualify for deferment, it beats forbearance almost every time.

Income-Driven Repayment

If your income has dropped, switching to an income-driven repayment plan may give you the relief you need without pausing progress. IDR plans set your monthly payment as a percentage of discretionary income, and depending on income and family size, that payment can be as low as $0.⁸ Even a $0 IDR payment counts as a qualifying payment toward PSLF and IDR forgiveness. You avoid delinquency, keep progressing toward forgiveness, and in many cases pay no more than you would during a forbearance. The tradeoff is paperwork: you apply for the plan and recertify your income each year.

If Your Request Is Denied

Because approval is discretionary, your servicer can say no. Payments remain due on schedule after a denial, so don’t wait to act. Ask why the request was denied. Sometimes the problem is documentation, not eligibility: a missing pay stub, a vague hardship statement, an incomplete form. Fix the gap and resubmit.

If the denial stands, ask your servicer to evaluate you for deferment or help you apply for an income-driven repayment plan. The Federal Student Aid Ombudsman’s office directs borrowers to work with their servicers on forbearance, deferment, and discharge requests rather than routing those through the ombudsman process, so your servicer remains the right point of contact.⁹

The one thing not to do is go quiet. Federal student loans go into default after 270 days of missed payments, and the consequences include wage garnishment, tax refund seizure, and loss of eligibility for future federal aid. A short call to your servicer to explore other relief is worth far more than avoiding the conversation.

1
Federal Student Aid. General Forbearance Request Form
2
Federal Student Aid. Deferment and Forbearance
3
eCFR. 34 CFR 685.205 – Forbearance
4
Nelnet. Credit Reporting
5
Nelnet. Interest Capitalization
6
Federal Student Aid. FAQ – Deferment and Forbearance
7
Federal Student Aid. Payment Count Adjustments Toward Income-Driven Repayment and PSLF
8
Federal Student Aid. Income-Driven Repayment Plans
9
Federal Student Aid. Feedback and Ombudsman