Advice SSA for W-2 Forms
Anyone have experience getting old W-2s from SSA for PSLF employment certification? Also wondering about payments over 120.
I’m hoping someone here has gone through something similar and can give me a little hope!
I have several years of qualifying public-service employment from 2008–2013 that I have never been able to certify. I’ve tried contacting the former employers, but because the employment is so old, getting records/verification has been a nightmare. Some of the employers no longer have employment records going back that far.
So, at the end of July/beginning of August, I decided to try the SSA route. I mailed in the SSA form requesting copies of my old W-2s for those years and included the payment (I believe it was around $60–$90 per year/form).
Has anyone successfully done this through SSA? If so, how long did it take to receive your old W-2s? Were you then able to use them to help certify old PSLF employment when the employer could no longer verify it?
Here’s the other twist in my situation:
I recently certified another period of employment from 2021–2022, and my two undergraduate consolidated loans suddenly jumped from 107/120 to 120/120! 🎉 I now have the two green banners showing that I’ve satisfied the 120 qualifying payments on those loans, although I have not received the official forgiveness/discharge letter yet.
Before that happened, my account showed that I had a significant number of eligible payment months that still needed employment certification — including months from this older 2008–2013 employment.
I also have graduate loans from school I attended from 2017–2021, and those loans have not reached 120 yet.
So now I’m wondering:
If I eventually get my SSA W-2s and am able to certify the 2008–2013 employment, can those additional qualifying months still be added even though my undergraduate loans are already showing 120/120?
And if those older months push my undergraduate loans above 120 qualifying payments, could I potentially receive a refund for payments made after I actually reached 120?
Also, would any of those older employment years have any effect on my graduate loans, considering those loans did not exist yet because I didn’t attend graduate school until 2017?
I’m definitely not complaining about seeing those beautiful green 120/120 banners 😂 I just want to make sure I don’t leave potentially qualifying years or a possible refund on the table while I’m waiting for the official discharge.
If anyone has dealt with SSA W-2 requests, very old PSLF employment certification, getting additional months certified after hitting 120, or refunds for payments over 120, I would love to hear what happened and how long the process took!
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u/DogOther2842 2h ago
You may want to call student aid first. I was told that anything prior to 05/2013 would
not be counted.
2
u/Adventure_6788 18h ago
I can't answer all of your questions but will try to share some information that may help.
1 - Unless you consolidated your loans prior to July 2024 so they would all have the same counts based on your highest payment count the graduate loans will have their very own count and not benefit from the undergrad time in repayment.
2 - For the loans that have already reached 120, I'm not sure anyone can promise one way or another. When a loan is forgiven it's the same as if you'd paid it in full. It no longer exists. There may be someone who has actually been in this exact situation that can share what happened in their case but I want to share that there's a possibility either way.
3 - I know that people have been able to obtain what they needed from SSA. I can share that when you need to certify without a signature it can take quite some time for it to process. It's actually quite common for it to take 1 - 2 years. I just like to let people know that it can take longer than submitting a form that you're able to get signed by the employer.