What Is a Public Service Job? Here’s What to Know Before Pursuing One

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If you’re wondering what a public service job is, you may have federal student loan debt hanging around your neck.

Yes, this type of employment could help you receive relief from the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program (PSLF). It’s a program designed to forgive government-held education debt for workers at certain public and nonprofit employers.

Before you jump headfirst into this specialized career track, let’s review the basics of public service employment, and pose 9 questions to ask yourself before pursuing a public service job.

What is a public service job?

If you’re asking this question because you’re looking to vanquish student loan debt, you’re asking the right question. Working in public service is one surefire way to qualify for federal loan forgiveness, as well as repayment assistance programs proffered by states and employers.

A public service job is a position at a government or nonprofit employer,and there are a lot of roles and organizations that fall into this category. Here are some examples:

Federal, state, local and tribal government agencies Americorps (full-time) and Peace Corps Military and public health services jobs Law enforcement positions or public service law Public school, college and university jobs, including administrative and teaching roles Private schools, colleges and universities that operates as not-for-profit organization Other positions in 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organizations

The easiest way to determine if the employer is eligible for PSLF is to ask its human resources department before accepting the position. To double-check its eligibility, you could also complete a PSLF Employment Certification Form via the Department of Education.

Not all nonprofits are eligible employers. Labor unions and partisan political organizations, for example, don’t fall into this category. Working for a company holding a government contract with a PSLF-eligible employer also wouldn’t allow you to qualify.

9 more questions to consider before working in public service

1. What is a public service job’s eligibility requirements for PSLF? 2. How much will I earn, and what effect does that have on my student loans? 3. Does my salary affect my eligibility for PSLF? 4. Does my loan qualify for PSLF? 5. Do I have to stay in a public service job until the loan is paid off? 6. Can I consolidate my loans after accepting a public service job? 7. Does my consolidated loan with my spouse affect my loan forgiveness eligibility? 8. Will the PSLF program still be available after I’ve made the 120 qualifying payments? 9. Is it worth pursuing Public Service Loan Forgiveness?

1. What is a public service job’s eligibility requirements for PSLF?

To qualify for PSLF, you need to be a full-time employee of an eligible employer. This means you work at least 30 hours per week — if your company defines full-time as working fewer hours, you will still have to work the 30 hours to qualify.

Luckily, you could still meet the threshold if you work multiple part-time public service jobs that add up to 30 hours.

As of 2020, if you work for a religious employer, you could meet this requirement by including time spent on:

Religious instruction Worship services Proselytizing

Regardless of how you meet the required number of hours, you will also have to put in 10 years of service to be eligible for PSLF. This decade requirement was determined by the number of payments you’d need to make to qualify. You must make 120 payments, which breaks down to one payment per month for a decade.

2. How much will I earn, and what effect does that have on my student loans?

Your salary depends on your employer and line of work. What’s important to consider is your salary-to-student loan debt ratio. If you have high loan balances compared to your salary, applying to public service jobs would be valuable because you could pay less under income-driven repayment (IDR) — and have more forgiven via PSLF.

To figure out if the math works, estimate the possible salary for public service jobs you are considering. You might employ tools like PayScale or the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ data.

Once you know what level of salary you could expect to earn, input the figure into our debt-to-income calculator.

3. Does my salary affect my eligibility for PSLF?

Your income level has no bearing on whether or not you qualify for PSLF.

Still, you are required to make 120 monthly payments over 10 years on an IDR plan, so your income level could be a determining factor of whether you have a remaining loan balance to be forgiven at the end of a decade.

4. Does my loan qualify for PSLF?

Even if your potential public service job is eligible for PSLF, your student loan might not be.

Fortunately, you could consolidate ineligible federal loans (FFEL and Perkins) into a Direct Consolidation Loan eligible for PSLF (see question 6, below).

5. Do I have to stay in a public service job until the loan is paid off?

The short answer is yes. Still, the 120 payments don’t have to be consecutive — they just have to be made while you are working full-time under a qualified employer.

For example, if you decide to leave a qualifying public service job, you won’t lose credit for the payments you’ve already made. So, if you leave and come back to a public service job to fulfill the 10-year, 120-payment requirement, you could still be eligible for PSLF. However, in this situation, the paperwork trail can become just that much more difficult.

Notably, though, if you’re at the 120-payment mark, you must apply for PSLF before leaving your public service job. You can only receive forgiveness if you are currently working at an eligible employer.

6. Can I consolidate my loans after accepting a public service job?

Consolidating loans may sound appealing and can certainly be helpful with organizing debt payments, but it could affect your PSLF status.

FFEL and Perkins loans might be eligible if you consolidate them into a Direct Consolidation Loan. This allows you to take multiple federal loans and combine them into one new loan (of the same balance and average interest rate) for a single monthly payment.

With that said, only payments made toward the new consolidated loan will count towards the 120-payment requirement for PSLF. Any previous payments you made on the non-eligible loans will not qualify — you’ll be at square one of your 120-payment schedule.

The clock would also reset on payments previously made on Direct Loans that could be included in consolidation. So if you’ve already made 24 qualifying payments on eligible Direct Loans (and put in two years of employment service), for example, you should think twice about consolidating those loans.

One possible solution is consolidating your additional federal student loans separately. The Education Department’s PSLF Help Tool can help you evaluate whether to consolidate some or all of your government-held debt.

7. Does my consolidated loan with my spouse affect my loan forgiveness eligibility?

While being married doesn’t affect accepting a public service job, it can change your eligibility for PSLF.

Unfortunately, joint FFEL Consolidation Loan borrowers can’t reconsolidate their shared debt into a Direct Consolidation Loan, according to the Department of Education.

If you have a joint Direct Consolidation Loan, on the other hand, you still could qualify for PSLF with some caveats:

You and your spouse must work full-time with a PSLF-eligible employer while the 120 required payments are submitted. If you work an appropriate public service job (but your spouse doesn’t), only the original debt you borrowed (before consolidation) in your name may be forgiven. 8. Will the PSLF program still be available after I’ve made the 120 qualifying payments?

Since the Congress created the PSLF program (and then-President George W. Bush signed it into law in 2007), they could change or end it at any point.

Changes also occur with little notice. For example, in 2016, the Department of Education disqualified some lawyers working for the American Bar Association (ABA) from receiving PSLF. The Department said that even if you received approval that your employer meets the requirements for PSLF, that doesn’t mean it’s an official approval for PSLF.

This tenuous status of PSLF is something graduates who haven’t yet entered the workforce might want to consider before pinning their hopes on relief awarded a decade away.

9. Is it worth pursuing Public Service Loan Forgiveness?

Only you can answer this question, as every individual is different. If you’re naturally drawn to government or nonprofit work, PSLF could simply be a bonus to pursuing the career you’ve already desired.

If you’re weighed down by federal student loans and are open to all sorts of employment, on the other hand, PSLF might not be reason enough to start a career in public service.

As you weigh your options, consider this parting advice:

If you can’t imagine yourself in a PSLF-approved position, however, review other jobs that offer student loan forgiveness. There are potential downsides to student loan forgiveness, PSLF or otherwise, including the 10-year wait and lack of career maneuverability. If you still think federal loan forgiveness could be the right route, consider the stories of borrowers who are pursuing PSLF. Also consider the math: Free student loan forgiveness calculators can help you figure whether pursuing PSLF will be worth the time and effort.

Andrew Pentis contributed to this report.

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