A Court Ordered Your Student Loan Erased. Over a Thousand People Are Still Waiting. Check Your Email.

Update, October 19, 2026: The late discharges below went to court. On August 18, the borrowers’ lawyers asked a federal judge to enforce the settlement and to hold the Education Department in contempt. They say at least 1,051 class members are still owed discharges or refunds past their deadlines, some by more than a year and a half. The Department’s answer, per the lawyers’ filings, is that it gets to decide when a missed deadline counts as a “material” breach. It’s also now arguing that tax refunds and wages seized for older FFEL loans aren’t “payments” it has to refund. One sworn declaration is from a 69-year-old on Social Security putting housing, utilities and medical bills on credit cards while waiting for a refund. The hearing is November 5, 2026. If you’re still waiting, send the details below to the lawyers before then, and include any amounts seized from your tax refund or paycheck.

If you filed a borrower defense claim against your school after June 23, 2022 and before November 16, 2022, the Education Department owes you a discharge on a deadline it agreed to. A court just told it again to pay up. Now go check whether yours actually landed, because more than a thousand people are sitting on relief that is already overdue.

The case is Sweet v. McMahon. At least $23 billion in federal student loan relief for more than 500,000 borrowers who said their schools lied to them. The Department signed the settlement in 2022, then went looking for more time.

On July 17, 2026, a three-judge Ninth Circuit panel unanimously told it no. The court found “no significant change either in factual conditions or in law” that would justify rewriting a deal the agency negotiated itself.

Eileen Connor, who runs the Project on Predatory Student Lending, the group that brought the case, said it about as flatly as you can: “Once again, the courts have rejected the Department’s attempts to evade its obligations to borrowers who have waited far too long for the relief they are owed.”

Once again. Two words carrying the whole history of this case.

A court order is not money in your account

Here’s the part nobody sends you a letter about. The settlement runs on a schedule, and the schedule has already started.

Decisions were due January 28, 2026 for people whose schools appear on the settlement’s Exhibit C list, and April 15, 2026 for everyone else. Eligibility notices went out March 30, 2026 and by June 15, 2026. From the day your notice arrives, the Department has one year to actually wipe the loan.

It is not hitting all of those dates. On June 18, 2026, the borrowers’ lawyers filed a formal Notice of Material Breach saying the Department had missed delivery deadlines for roughly 122 people in the Automatic Relief Group and 929 borrowers across Decision Groups 1 through 4.

That’s over a thousand people whose discharge is late right now. Nobody is going to notice on your behalf.

Check this today

Search every email account you have, spam folder included, for anything from [email protected]. Notices went to the address on the original application, which for a lot of people is an inbox they stopped opening years ago.

Then open your servicer account and look at the balance. If it jumps around or shows something strange, don’t panic. The Project on Predatory Student Lending tells class members to expect unexpected balance changes during a discharge, and treats them as a sign it’s in progress.

If you find nothing at all, email [email protected] and [email protected]. Send your name, the email address on your application, your borrower defense application number, and the date you filed. That is the whole ask.

One more thing worth doing while you wait: know what you’d owe if this drags. Run your current balance through our loan calculator so the number in your head is the real one, and keep an eye on the education hub for where the rest of the repayment rules land.

Do not stop checking because a court said you won. Winning and getting paid are two different dates.

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