Sweet Automatic Relief Group Deadline Survey
Please only fill out this survey if you are a
Sweet
class member in the Automatic Relief Group as defined in our
Sweet
FAQs
.
Please fill out all the required fields below, even if you have already shared this information with us previously. This is for our information management purposes.
First Name:
Last Name:
Preferred email address:
If you have used any other emails in connection with your Federal Student Aid account, please list them here.
Phone number
State in which you currently reside
Please enter the state abbreviation here (For example, MA for Massachusetts)
ZIP Code
5 characters left.
You will have the opportunity to provide information related to each school that you attended for which you applied for Borrower Defense.
School for which you applied for borrower defense:
If your school does not come up, type "Other."
If other please describe:
When did you apply for Borrower Defense (BD) in relation to this school?
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
January 1, 2022- June 22, 2022
June 23, 2022- November 16, 2022
What is your borrower defense claim ID number (also known as the application number)?
If you don’t know this number, call the Borrower Defense hotline at 1-855-279-6207 from 8 AM- 8 PM EST.
8 characters left.
This is an eight digit number, often starting with a 1 or 0. This survey will not accept anything other than an eight digit number. Do NOT make up a number just for the sake of submitting this survey. If you are unable to identify your BD Claim ID number, enter 00000000 and we will understand why you did this.
If you submitted your BD application between January 1, 2019, and December 31, 2019, you should receive a decision or revise and resubmit notice by this July 28, 2024.
If you have not, please return to fill out this form at that time.
If you submitted your BD application between January 1, 2020, and December 31, 2020, you should receive a decision
or revise and resubmit notice
by
January 28, 2025
.
If you have not, please return to fill out this form at that time.
If you submitted your BD application between January 1, 2021, and June 22, 2022, you should receive a decision or revise and resubmit notice by
July 28, 2025.
If you have not, please return to fill out this form at that time.
If you applied for Borrower Defense between June 23, 2022-November 16, 2022, you are a Post-Class Applicant. Have you received a notice from the Department of Education confirming your Post-Class status?
Yes
No
If you are reaching out because you have not yet received a decision and/or relief, please note that under the settlement,
the Department of Education has until January 28, 2026 to issue decisions to Post-Class Applicants
. As such, we will not respond individually to these inquiries.
If you are reaching out because you have not yet received a notice from the Department of Education confirming your post-class status,
please note that this notice may have been sent to an email you no longer have access to or your spam folder
. Before submitting this survey, please search every email inbox you have access to for an email from noreply@studentaid.gov with the subject “Sweet v. Cardona Settlement Post-Class Applicant Borrower Defense Notice.” If you are unable to locate a notice after searching for it, please submit this survey.
Have you received a notice from the Department of Education stating that your Borrower Defense application has been approved under the Sweet settlement?
Yes
No
If you are reaching out because you did not receive a notice from the Department of Education confirming your eligibility for settlement relief,
please note that this notice may have been sent to an email you no longer have access to or your spam folder
. Before submitting this survey, please search every email inbox you have access to for an email from noreply@studentaid.gov with the subject “Approval of Your Borrower Defense Case Under Exhibit C of the Sweet v. Cardona Settlement.” If you are unable to locate a notice after searching for it, please submit this survey.
Did you receive a decision or a revise and resubmit notice on your BD application?
Yes, I received an approval
Yes, I received a revise and resubmit notice
No, I have not received a decision or a revise and resubmit notice
If you are reaching out because you have not yet received settlement relief,
please note that the Department of Education has one year from the date of decision to effectuate full relief.
As such, we will not respond individually to these inquiries.
If you received a “revise and resubmit” notice, this means that you are in the decision group and the Department of Education determined that your application did not meet the standards for approval under the streamlined procedures. This notice should explain why your application was not approved and provide examples of successful applications.
(If the notice you received did not include this information, please share that with us in response the following question)
. You will have six months from when you received this notice to submit a revised borrower defense application to the Department. If you submit a revised application, the Department will have six months from when you submit to either grant relief or issue a final denial notice. If you choose not to resubmit, your notice will convert to a final denial upon the expiration of the six-month resubmission window. If your application is denied, you have the right to challenge that denial in federal court.
Did the revise and resubmit notice you received include an explanation of why your borrower defense application was not approved and provide examples of successful applications?
Yes
No
If not, please upload a screenshot of the revise and resubmit notice you received.
If you wish to upload another file, click here
If you are reaching out because you have not yet received a decision or a revise and resubmit notice from the Department of Education, please note that this information may have been sent to an email you no longer have access to or your spam folder.
Before submitting this survey, please search every email inbox you have access to for an email from noreply@studentaid.gov and look for one of the following subject lines: “Sweet v. Cardona Settlement: Borrower Defense Notice to Revise and Resubmit,” or Sweet v. Cardona Settlement: Borrower Defense Notice of Approval.” If you are unable to locate a decision after searching for it, please submit this survey.
"Relevant Loans"
Please note, in this survey we will refer to your dischargeable or BD-related federal student loans as your "Relevant Loans."
My "Relevant Loans" are: (Check all that apply)
Please select...
Direct Loans
FFEL(P) Loans
Consolidation Loans
Private Loans
Perkins Loans
ParentPlus Loans
To select multiple loan types, hold down "Ctrl" while clicking each type of loan you have.
Direct Loans
are federal student loans that are originated by and held by the Department of Education.
There are two types of
FFEL(P) loans
: some are held by the government, and some are held by private bank lenders. Loans held by private bank lenders are known as “commercially held FFELs.” Although both are considered “federal loans” because they were authorized by federal law, payments that you made on commercially held FFEL loans were made to bank lenders, not to the Department of Education. The Department of Education does not have the legal authority to refund payments made to commercial lenders. Please note that some companies service multiple kinds of loans. For example, Navient can service Direct, FFEL, and/or private loans. Therefore, knowing that you have loans with Navient (or another servicer) is not an indication of the type of loans you have. If you’re unsure whether you have Direct or FFEL loans, or whether your FFEL loans are commercially held, please visit the National Consumer Law Center’s Student Loan Borrower Assistance
page
for helpful resources on figuring out what kind of loans you have. If you want to find out who your federal loan servicer is, click
here
. If you’re unsure whether your loans are private, you can call your servicer and ask, or you can cross-reference your credit report with your Federal Student Aid (FSA) information.
Does your consolidated loan include loans other than your "Relevant Loans?"
Yes
No
If yes, loans taken out to attend which school(s)?
Who is your current or most recent federal loan servicer?
Please select...
Aidvantage
Default Resolution Group
ECSI
EdFinancial
FedLoan
Granite State
Great Lakes
MOHELA
Navient
Nelnet
PHEAA
Other
To select multiple servicers, hold down "Ctrl" while clicking each servicer.
If other, please specify:
Has your servicer told you that you need to return to repayment on your "Relevant Loans"?
Yes
No
Please upload any relevant correspondence you've received from your servicer, and/or the Department of Education telling you to return to repayment.
When is your servicer instructing you to begin repayment?
MM/DD/YYYY
How much money does your servicer say that your monthly payment will be?
Please type only the number value. For example, enter $1,500 as 1500.
Since being told to return to the repayment of your Relevant Loans, have you made a payment?
Yes
No
If so, will you please upload proof of payment?
(e.g., screenshot of payment made in your federal loan servicer's portal)
Have your Relevant Loans been discharged?
Yes
No
Some, but not all, of my Relevant Loans have been discharged
Please upload documentation that shows your still outstanding Relevant Loans. Documentation may include screenshots from your servicer's website or Federal Student Aid portal.
If you wish to upload another file, click here
Have you received a refund of payments you made to the Department of Education on your Relevant Loans?
Yes, I have received a refund of all payments I made
I have received a refund of some, but not all, payments I made
My servicer applied my refund to the balance of other loans
No, I have not received any refund
Please note: payments that you made on commercially held FFEL loans were made to bank lenders, not to the Department of Education. For that reason, such payments will not be included in any refund you receive under the Sweet settlement, because the Department of Education does not have the legal authority to refund payments made to commercial lenders. If you’re unsure whether you have Direct or FFEL loans, or whether your FFEL loans are commercially held, please visit the
National Consumer Law Center’s Student Loan Borrower Assistance page
for helpful resources on figuring out what kind of loans you have.
Please upload documentation showing the amount you've been refunded so far, if any, and the amount you believe you are entitled to. Documentation may include payment records from your servicer, bank records, tax records, etc.
If you wish to upload another file, click here
Please upload documentation showing the amount that was applied to your non-
Sweet
loans and, if applicable, copies of any communication with your servicer about this issue.
If you wish to upload another file, click here
Has the credit tradeline(s) associated with your Relevant Loans been deleted from your credit report? You can request your credit report at
AnnualCreditReport.com
.
Yes
No
I can't tell
Upload a screenshot of the outstanding tradeline associated with your Relevant Loans.
If you wish to upload another file, click here
If you would like to enter information about another Borrower Defense application, click here
Optional:
It would be helpful for us to learn more about your Relevant Loans.
One way to do this is to view what is called an NSLDS (National Student Loan Data System) text file. This file contains a lot of information about your loans. Please see instructions below on how to download your NSLDS text file. We will ask you to upload this file once you download it. Please note, this file does not contain your Social Security Number.
Please upload your NSLDS Text File here:
You can use this space to explain anything you think is important to your situation but is not reflected via the documentation you've attached.
In accordance with the Privacy Act of 1974, the Department of Education cannot release any information regarding you to anyone without your written consent. Do you consent to us sharing the information you’re submitting here with the Department of Education, and to the Department of Education sharing with us any information they’re able to discover about the status of your application?
Yes
No
Would you like to opt-in to emails from PPSL?
Yes
No
Sharing borrowers' stories with the court, elected officials, the media, and others can help support our advocacy efforts.
May we share your story with the Department of Education, and potentially the court, as part of our advocacy efforts?
Yes
Yes, but only anonymously
No
Are you willing to be quoted in public materials?
Yes
Yes, but only anonymously
No
Contact Information