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>> Welcome and thank you for standing by.
At this time all participants are in listen only mode
until the question and answer portions of today's call.
If you would like to ask a question during those times,
please press star then 1 on your touchtone phone.
Today's conference is being recorded.
If you have any objection, you may disconnect.
Now I'll turn the call over to your host, Ms. Sharon Rabb
from Campaign Consultations.
Thank you, ma'am.
You may begin.
>> Thank you.
Hello everyone and welcome
to the monthly webinar for business.
I'm Sharon Rabb and I'm the host for today's session
on using the education award and managing student loans.
The Eli Segal Education Award is one
of the most valuable benefits of your VISTA service.
We know that you have many questions about this benefit,
how to use it, and how to access the award once you've completed
your service.
Today's Webinar will answer many of your questions.
In addition, we will be staying on the line
for an additional 30 minutes at the conclusion of the Webinar
to take your tips and resources
and to answer any other additional questions you
may have.
We will answer questions throughout the event
and we will have a special time at various places
in the presentation to answer questions.
Please look to the right-hand of your screen and you will see
that we are asking you to answer a few questions.
These polls help us to know who's participating
in this Webinar and to direct them.
Direct your questions to your needs.
So today's team [silence], today we have Josh Walker
from the VISTA Member Support Unit.
He is a technician and an expert
on the Eli Segal Education Award.
And I am Sharon Rabb, Project Specialist
with Campaign Consultation and we also have Robyn Stegman
who is a Project Specialist with Campaign Consultation
and she is doing the tech today,
so if you have technical questions you may address them
to her.
And finally have Danielle Ricks another Project Specialist
at Campaign Consultation and she is going
to be monitoring the chat and the Q&A and keeping an eye
on any questions that you may have.
I'm now going to turn it over to Robyn Stegman,
who will give you a few tips on participating through WebEx.
>> Thank you, we are -- I'm here just to give you some tips
for how to participate during this Webinar.
You will see that there is a Q&A portion in the right
of your screen; you can use this feature to ask questions
at any time throughout the presentation.
We'll be answering some
of the questions throughout the presentation and some
of them we'll be asking directly
to the presenter at points throughout.
You can also share tips, resources and ideas
with other attendees by using the chat feature,
which is also found above the Q&A Section.
We ask that you do not ask questions for the presenters
in the chat so we can make sure
that everybody can get their questions answered.
You may also send chat messages privately to the presenters
or to a specific attendees, but your default is to send messages
that are visible to everyone.
If the chat becomes distracting, you can minimize that windowpane
by clicking on the small triangle in the left --
on the left of the word chat.
Right now all the phone lines are muted
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Later on we'll open the phone lines to take your questions.
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so if you get disconnected you can always call back in.
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you can rejoin using the link that was e-mailed to you.
We'll keep this conversation going for about 30 minutes
after the Webinar is over, for any additional questions
or resources that you have.
And this Webinar is being recorded so it will be
on the Webinar for VISTA page on the VISTA campus,
along with other sessions we've presented.
The PowerPoint for this presentation will be sent
in an follow-up e-mail along
with additional resources on today's topic.
And now I would like to turn it over to Andy King.
>> Thank you Robyn and welcome everyone,
thanks for joining us on today's session.
My name is Andy King and I work in the VISTA Training Unit
and one of my roles is to develop learning opportunities
like this one to help you with continuing to build your skills
and increase your understanding, not only of your work
in related activities to your VISTA service,
but also navigating life as a VISTA.
We here in VISTA, think it's really important
that you spend your VISTA year not only building the community
in which we're serving, but also building yourself,
building your own skills, your own capacity so that
by the time you finish your service year, your experience
and the formal and informal training and learning
that you've done will really position you well
for the next step in your career.
So I applaud you for taking time and investing
in your professional development and with that I'm going
to turn it back over to Sharon to review our agenda.
>> Thank you Andy.
So today we're going to talk about using the education award
to pay existing and future debt, we'll also talk
about loan forbearance and deferment.
We'll talk about public service loan forgiveness,
income based repayment, making the most of your benefits
and then we'll give you some next steps
as to how you can best prepare yourself
for accessing the benefits from your Eli Segal Education Award.
And finally at the end we will take some of your tips
and resources and we will talk about those
and give you an opportunity to share what you know.
Now I'd like to introduce to Josh Walker and he is
from the VISTA Member Support Unit and he will guide us
through using your education award
and managing student loans.
Josh.
>> Thank you very much, hi thank you again
for participating today with this seminar.
At first glance really with the education award it can appear
like the benefit is a little bit narrow, espec --
in particular the way it can be employed.
But if you take a closer look at it, I think you're going to see
that there are multiple ways
that you can employ the educational award that'll help
you and it'll help you not just during your service term,
but well beyond your time as a VISTA member.
Now to help cover that, we've broken these uses
out into the three categories that we have listed up here.
We're going to talk about the existing debt,
we'll talk about future costs
and there's some other uses along the way
that I think will be of interest and of use
to you through your year.
So let's go ahead and get started.
Let's see, so first regarding paying existing debts,
this is really the traditional use of the award
that most people expect to see and it's definitely one
of those popular uses.
It can be used to pay existing loans that you had for any
of the types of loan types here that are listed,
so Federal Direct Loans, loans that are consolidated
to [inaudible] direct, so something right now just
as a quick note, if you don't have Federal Direct Loans
like say you have private loans, that may not be able
to be employed for the education award, you're going to want
to be sure that your loans are consolidated
through Federal Direct if they have not already been.
And then as far as the actual processing of payment,
we process all of those through MyData Americorp.gov
so you'll make use of that profile you've logged
onto to complete your paperwork,
not just through the service year,
but over the life of the award.
>> And Josh we have, right now a result from our poll.
>> Uh-hum.
>> So it looks like we have 86% have an education award,
about 60% plan on using that education award to cover it
to use existing loans.
>> Uh-huh.
>> And about 10% -- about 19% are going to use
if for a college degree program,
7% for adult education opportunities and about 2%
for other, so and it looks
like most VISTA's have a variety anywhere
from it's pretty evenly spread from how many loans they have
from one to five or more and it looks like the majority --
the largest loans that VISTA's have are Federal Direct,
Stafford and it looks like those are our two main ones
and then we have about 5% who have Perkins,
Plus, Private and other.
>> Okay, well great that's right in line with what --
and we have -- we see across the program in general
so there should be something in her for everybody, that's great.
All right so looking here first then I guess next two,
paying future costs.
Future costs is really where the real value the word begins
to start showing up.
As you can see there are a variety of uses
that the award can be put toward, that might not occur
to you at first glance.
There's the traditional idea of paying your tuition
and your fees for school, but it does go beyond that.
But it's also important for these other uses to acknowledge
that there are restrictions and your first point of contact
to make sure you can use the award
for these alternate benefits
or these alternate applications is going to be
with your financial aid office at the school
or the institution that's using it.
That can include things like books;
you can do your school supplies and your school equipment.
Say for example if you needed a laptop for school,
additionally you can get supplements for the cost
of your living under certain circumstances,
so again important on that one to stress you check
with the school first.
You can also apply the award not just too domestic schools,
but to schools that are titled for institutions.
That can mean overseas programs, study abroad programs,
so you're going to want to explore the entire broad base
of institutions and to do that you can use the Department
of Education's Title Four Resource Page.
If you just go to the Department of Education Website,
the resource is readily there for you to refer too.
And then for folks that aren't necessarily going
with the traditional college track,
there are enrichment classes that you can take
through any Title Four Institution
and then several trade schools are also Title Four.
So there's a lot of different applications to the award
in terms of its use [inaudible background conversation]
that you can probably find a good advantage
for yourself with.
Now in addition to that, there are some limits, so you're going
to want to keep those in mind.
And the Education Award, it's not transferrable
to your dependants for the VISTA program.
This is specific to VISTA
and as a VISTA member the award is going to be for you
and your use throughout that seven year term.
And so unfortunately you won't be able o transfer it,
but for yourself it will be there and available to use,
just like the Education Award is across other programs.
As I mentioned, the Education Award is available
for seven calendar years from the last day of your service.
So if you end your service on Christmas Day of this year,
it will expire on the day after Christmas in the year 2019.
Now right now looking toward another important feature
of the award is the fact that it does get taxed
and that's an important feature that a lot of people need
to pay attention too so that you don't get caught unaware
at tax time and that you can keep this
in mind while you're applying your benefits
so you can get the most out of it.
Now in terms of how much tax it's subject to is qualified
in the fact that its only taxed for the amount you use
in the year you use it and that only applies
if the amount is $600 or greater.
So costs for school or any application of the award
under $600 that's 599 or less,
do not have tax forms generated for them.
You don't need to do the math on that though, we keep track
of that through the expenditures you make out of the award
through My Americorp and we will automatically create a 1099R
form and that will be posted to your profile no later
than the 31st of January in any given year.
You're going to need to submit that with your taxes
for that year, because that amount will be tacked
on as income and be taxed during that particular year.
It's an important point; keep that one in mind not
as you're going, not just now, but beyond your service year,
because that's where you're going to see the impact.
[ Background Sounds ]
Now let's see, a little bit
about the forbearance of your loans.
It's important additional benefit and it comes
with signing up for the Education Award,
it's also very important to understand
so you can get the greatest benefit possible while
you're in-service.
In the most basic way, it simply allows you
to postpone making a Federal Student Loan payment.
That in and of itself is a great additional benefit,
but there's a little bit more to it than that.
There are only certain types of loans that'll qualify,
now for forbearance, that'll include that'll include most
Federal loans and we'll see if you've got a quick snippet
on that, can we get to the next slide please?
Yeah here we go, now as far
as most Federal loans are concerned, I use that term
as a blanket because in the vast majority of situations 90%
or more we see these requests for forbearance get processed
by the Federal loan holder with no interruption or no issue.
But if the lender tells you that your loan doesn't qualify,
based on your National Service participation, ask your lender
to see if your service qualifies you
for some other forbearance program
or some other type of deferment.
Those programs do exist and you do want to explore every option.
However it's important to note that the VISTA program
and a corporation for National Service cannot mandate
to a lender that they must grant forbearance.
Your qualification is not a mandate,
it's something you're going to need to request
through the lender first and then it can,
if you hit an obstacle with that, get to that conversation
with the lender so you can get at everything
that they can offer you for your particular type of loan.
Now as far as the actual benefits
that forbearance gives you, so you've gone through this process
and you've got your loan, in forbearance,
what that means you'll have no loan payment that will come due
for the duration of your service term as long
as you are in forbearance.
And the interest that's accrued on that loan while
in forbearance, in the end of your service, we will pay it
for you, that will be above and beyond the education award,
now you're going to have to request it separately
and you can do so through MyDatamericorp.gov,
once your award balance appears there will be an additional
feature to submit and interest accrual payment.
And also again, just to stress that the amount is in addition
to the education award.
So it's the benefit above and beyond it,
so it can be a big advantage, especially to those of you
who may be holding multiple or higher amounts in loans.
[Inaudible Background Conversations] And then finally
on the loan forbearance similarly,
there are some limitations to it.
It is contingent on completing your service.
You have to finish service first.
If you do not or you early terminate from the program,
you will owe your lender any interest that you accrue during
that forbearance period.
So definitely keep that in mind
as you're weighing your decisions
to complete your service term as things may change
over the course of the year and coordinate
that with your project with us
so that we can make sure you get the most out of the benefits
that are there for you.
Now it's also not available to those
who choose the cash stipend as I said, it's just available
for the education award,
so if you choose the cash stipend there may be other
deferment programs for you, some of which we'll touch
on in a minute, but it's definitely a education award
specific benefit for loan forbearance.
Now as far as submitting a request,
it's a very simple process, all you need to do is go
to the Webpage at My Data Americorp.gov
and select the education award menu off of the left-hand side
from your homepage, you'll follow those links for making
that request and important to know here,
if you're lender's not registered that doesn't mean
that they don't approve it, you just need to go and make sure
that they're registered.
You just contact your lender, ask them to go to My Americorp
and register as an institution.
They can do it in the same day
and you can get a forbearance request processed same day.
Now in the event that there is some issue,
we do make paper forms available and they're available
through our national service hotline.
I want everybody to be aware of this option, however,
the best solution really is to use the national service hotline
to work through the electronic system,
rather than get a paper form instead.
This insures the fastest possible delivery on the benefit
and I can almost guarantee you that we will set you
up electronically in less time than it will take for us
to send a paper form your way or you submit it to the first round
of people that have to sign it.
We can resolve same day if we're looking
through the electronic system in most situations, so please keep
that in mind, if you do run into a technical issue,
let us give you a hand, it'll benefit you in the long run.
Now additionally loan deferment for those of you guys
who are looking at an alternative benefit.
Loan deferments can be requested directly through the lender,
they're not through our system, through the My Americorp System.
There are key differences between forbearance
and deferment and the primary one that you need to keep
in mind for yourself is that it doesn't cover interest accrual.
So where the forbearance would take that interest
that you accrue and set it aside and we'll pay it off at the end
of the year, yet the principle on your loan will continue
to build that additional interest
and that overall balance will sit there,
just like your loan would
and if you were making payments outside of service.
[Inaudible Background Conversation] Now as far
as loaner payment, there are multiple federal programs
that go above and beyond the VISTA's program benefits
that when you use them in concept with our own benefits,
they can really help you maximize the value
of the education award.
First among these for those
who are considering public service is the public service
loan forgiveness program or PSLF.
It encourages graduates really to choose a career
in public service and if this is your track,
it's a terrific benefit.
After you participate in this program
and you make 100 consecutive payments, all you have
to do is submit the remaining documentation about the balance
of that loan that remains and 100%
of that balance will be wiped out.
It's a, again tremendous benefit for those
that choose a public service track
and I strongly encourage you to explore this
if this is something you're thinking about.
And to help you on that way, let's talk a little bit
about who qualifies for it.
It's open to everyone, not just VISTA's,
not just National Service participates, but every American
who has a federal loan.
And those loans do have to be Federal Direct
or consolidated Federal Direct, so make sure you get in touch
with your lender again to consolidate those loans
if you haven't already.
And you need to work either with a nonprofit or government agency
and that can include schools, so school teachers, people thinking
about an education track, this is for you too.
And over the course of those 20 --
120 consecutive monthly payments, you just need
to be continuously on one of those tracks or in
that public service realm and be able to document that.
It's pretty straightforward if you know what you want to do
and it can really benefit you, so definitely check that out.
Now there is a separate list, associated benefit
that you can take advantage of and it doesn't matter if you're
on public service track or not,
it's called the Income Based Repayment or IBR.
Now it really doesn't have the same features
as Public Service Loan Forgiveness in terms
of the amount of time that you go over instead
of 120 consecutive payments,
it pays off the balance after 25 years.
But the real benefit to you,
and the reason we strongly encourage you
to have a good look at this one,
is that you can get your loan payments down based
on the amount of income you earn.
That includes hedging it against the living allowance amount
that you're currently getting paid.
Those rates can come down to as little as zero
or five dollars a month, we strongly recommend
that you have a good look at that.
Now keep in mind that you're going to have
to submit new tax records in order to maintain this,
so you're payments will increase as your income goes up.
There are maximums as a percentage of your income
that you can hit the ceiling on however,
so keep that in mind too, take a good look at this program,
it's a strong benefit and is something
that you can get a lot out of.
Another important thing to note with this though, it can be used
with all federal loans except Perkins.
So again for you Perkins Loan Holders out there,
there is something down the road for you,
but this may not apply for you.
It also doesn't work with private loans.
And again there's that longer term, 25 year track
if you are not on the public service track already.
Okay now it's a lot of information about these benefits
and you're not expected to retain all this information,
so to make sure that you can make use for all of it
in the long run, CNCS has a great online resource
for you to take advantage of.
It's called EducationAward.org, I strongly recommend you take
at least a browse through this site
and to help us explore this a little bit further,
I'm going to be turning this over to Andy King really quick,
so we can get a tour of the site.
Andy.
>> All right, thanks Josh and I'm sure many
of you have probably been to the AtAward.org Website,
but if you haven't we're going to take a quick look at it
so that you can become familiar with some of the information
that you'll find there and how it's organized,
because there's several different ways
that you can access the information that's here.
So perhaps if you're not all that familiar
with the many different ways
that the Education Award can be used, you might want to begin
by accessing the information through these stories.
So we have seven different little case studies,
these are sort of composites based on real life experience,
real people and based on different ways
that you can use the Education Award.
And so each of them shows a different approach
or a different question or a different
that an individual might have, so for instance this one --
the first one here, Trent [assumed spelling],
he's more concerned about getting a handle
on his loan debt, so that he can teach and still make ends meet
on a relatively low salary.
So this looks as really on managing student loans,
Aisha [assumed spelling] she's not getting paid for tuition,
but she needs to get a laptop, so this talks
about how you can use it for that purpose.
And each of these seven highlights a different way
of going about using the Education Award
to maximize its usefulness to you and to your situation.
So if you haven't looked at those, they're fun, animated,
there's some sound that goes along with it.
I do want to point out that this one, there's one of these
that does not apply to you as a VISTA, an as the one here
that I've highlighted with Delores [assumed spelling].
She wants to give, whoops,
she wants to give her Education Award to her granddaughter
that is an option for other Americorp Members who are
in Education Award, but not for VISTA Members.
I'll say that again,
VISTA Members cannot transfer their award to anybody else,
so you've selected the award,
you have to be the one to use it.
So that's one way that you can access information,
another is through this menu across the top,
so here are the stories again, there's section here on schools,
to talk about the different types of schools that you can --
where you can use an Education Award.
It also has a list of matching schools.
You may or may not be aware that there are many Universities
and Institutions of learning
that have made available additional funds to match,
sometimes it's one-to-one, sometimes two-to-one
to match the Education Award,
so if you have your 5550 form the Education Award
and the school matches it, then that becomes $11,100
or whatever two times 5550.
So if you are planning to go back to school
and use your Ed Award for tuition and you haven't
yet decided where you're going to attend, I encourage you
to take a look at the matching schools list to see
if there's schools there that offer the kinds of programs
or degrees that you're interested in,
because then your Education Award will go much further.
Likewise if you maybe are a college grad, you're an alum
of University and you want to encourage your University
or your alma mater to get more involved with national service
and you encourage people in these types of careers,
check the list and see if the school you attended is on there.
And if your schools not listed, then we have a list of tips
down here for recruiting matching schools
and there's nothing better than having alumni
from that University involved in and sort of encouraging
that school to match the Education Award.
So we'd really like to encourage your involvement in that.
Okay so some of other things here's information about loans
and there are a couple of things I'll point out,
because there are some differences as Josh mentioned,
specifically for VISTA Members and there's a section here
under loans, called Perkins Loans and VISTA.
So there are several different aspects of the Perkins Loan
for VISTA Members that don't fall into the typical things
so forbearance qualification and then
if you complete your service you can apply to have up to 15%
of your original loan amount forgiven, so that you don't have
to repay that, so the details are here and you can then drill
down with some of the additional links to see
if you qualify for that.
So if you have a Perkins Loan be sure you take a look
at that specific section here on Perkin's Loans and VISTA.
There's another section here
about using the Education Award overall and if you're just --
yeah it sounds like most of you have made your decision
about whether to select it or not,
but sometimes people are still a little unsure,
they want to know more about how they can use it before finally
deciding what they are going
to take Education Award or stick with it.
But do know that you have up until the 10th month of service,
so if you've selected the Education Award at the start
of your term of service, you have until the end
of the 10th month to switch to the cash stipend.
So anyway, there's more details here on some
of the considerations that you want to weigh-in.
Seen a few questions pop-up in the Q&A about taxes,
I'm sure Josh will have time to look at those a little bit more
when we get to the -- that will be Q&A session,
but there is a whole section here on taxes.
Some of the strategies, because you're obviously going to want
to take steps to reduce the amount of taxes you need to pay
on your Ed Award and so sometimes it's a matter
of timing, when you use it based
on what other income you might have during that tax year.
All right what else was I going to show you here?
Oh so there is a guide book for the Education Award,
so all of the information is sort of compiled
into one electronic document here, so if you didn't want
to go through the stories or you don't care about animation,
you could -- you can access it here, sort sequentially,
topic-by-topic there in the guidebook.
So back to home, this is again the Education Award,
there are some other navigation options down here on the right,
again so if you have a sense of how you might want to use it,
you can explore one of these pathways
and it'll pull together several different pieces
of information related to that topic.
So that's it for the Ed Award, I'm going to go ahead
and stop sharing here, and we'll go back now to Josh
and the rest of the presentation.
>> In the meantime, we have a number of questions
in the Q&A section that we could address to Josh
if he is prepared for that now.
>> Yeah I'll be happy to do my best.
>> Okay Danielle can you give us some idea of questions
in the Q&A that need answering?
>> Sure I can, Magen [assumed spelling] asks
"If you have consolidated your federal loans
through Direct Loans, can you use the award
to pay towards them"?
>> The answer to that is yes,
that's exactly what we're referring to in terms
of consolidating your loans.
There are some different types of federal loans,
particularly older ones that the consolidation process can help
you with, but if you are consolidated
under Federal Direct, then you're in good shape in order
to use these for all of the purposes we just described.
>> Great and so we have another question
from Bentley [assumed spelling],
"I thought I read you could transfer to a child
or grandchild if you were over 55 is this correct"?
>> That is unfortunately not correct for the VISTA program.
The VISTA program has a very specific and blanket limitation
to the use of the award for bequeathing it
or to transfer it so to speak.
That unfortunately does not have an aide qualification it,
so as a VISTA, you will be receiving the award directly,
it'll be for your direct benefit, not for transfer.
>> Okay and Christina [assumed spelling] asks
"If you're using the award to pay regular loan payments
under $600, do you have to pay taxes
on those individual payments"?
>> Good question, the taxation comes
over the course of the tax year.
So if you're making say an installment payment of $100
which is clearly below that, but you make one every month
for a year, that's $1,200 for that year
and that will be taxed.
So making smaller payments isn't a work around or a way
to wedge around the tax law.
It is based on the amount you use for that full year.
>> Great okay and then finally Rachel [assumed spelling] asks
"And what percent of tax is taken
out when you use your Education Loan"?
>> The tax percentage is actually based upon the total
gross income for the year, so it's --
if you again for the example of the $1,000 or the $1,200
for that year, they're not going to tax just the Education Award
and then your overall income separately, they're going
to take that Education Award amount that you used and roll it
into the entire earnings for the year and then that will be taxed
at the appropriate percentage,
based on where you are in the tax system.
>> Thank you Josh, we will take some more questions later on,
but at this point we'd like to move
on to making the most of your benefits.
>> Great, thanks for those questions again guys,
those were good ones, now they're obviously a lot
of uses here for the award, so the next question we want
to help you explore is "How can you make the most
of those programs"?
So here's some thoughts that we have
on how you can get the most out of it.
While you're in-service, which is where you guys are all now,
you should definitely look at this IBR Program,
I've mentioned it a few times, but it's worth harping
on because you get your monthly payments down to a very minimal
or even non-existent level.
Now all this is earning the Education Award,
should also apply
for forbearance while they're in-service.
If you're not sure if you apply --
qualify for it, check with your lender, but go the extra step
on doing that, don't, you know, discount yourself
out of the benefit you could receive,
by not having a conversation.
It's also important to mention that as far as forbearance goes
with the PSLF Program, the time you spend in forbearance,
counts towards your payments, a payment of zero,
while in national service,
is still within that public service track.
So you can come out of the VISTA Program and with 12
of the 120 consecutive payments already accounted
for without having to drop a dime on the program.
Very important benefit, so I expect you to all check that one
out if you're on that track.
And then lastly, VISTA's that are earning the cash stipend,
talk to a lender, look at alternative programs,
they really do exist and they go beyond Perkin's loans,
but let's take a look at those too.
For a VISTA with Perkins loans,
strongly encourage the IBR program,
just like with the other benefits or no matter the end
of service benefit,
simply because it gets the loan payment amount
down to something that's more into balance
with what you're earning as a member of National Service.
So speak with your lender about this program,
up to 15% of loan can be forgiven for each completed year
of VISTA service, you get an additional 15%
of the loan cancelled after that second year.
There are other features of this program that relate
to other types of service, such as Peace Corp off
of the EducationAward.org Webpage and the same page
that Andy was navigating through,
there's more detailed information about that.
If you have a Perkins loan and I remember here from the survey
that a few guys do, have a good look at that and see
if you can take advantage of it if it fits into all
of your plans, not just for service now,
but in service in the future.
Now for the Perkins loans though, you need --
and you need to actually select the cash stipend in order
to use this deferment program.
It's important to know that you can't really double-dip,
so you can't do the Education Award and then go to your lender
and try and get the Forgiveness, it doesn't work that way.
So you need to pick one of the other, but weigh the two
to make sure that you get the one that's the most benefit
for you.
Now after you're done with service,
it's where you really begin to manage these things out
and these other programs outside of Americorps
and VISTA's programs really come into play for you,
so you need to keep making your IBR payments,
maintain your tax records, your paystubs
and your loan statements.
Make sure that you pay the correct percentage amount each
year, you do that in a coordinating directly
with your lender, so if you're existing service,
you know you're going to be out there for another tax year,
you tell the lender hey I'm no longer in this,
this is what my new expected income is going to be,
they'll let you know what the new IBR payment rate is going
to be.
You need to schedule those payments every single month
and if you have the education award, schedule them
out of the education award directly so that you don't have
to go out of your pocket for any of this.
It maximizes that benefit and that balance is there
for seven years, so if your loan payments are very low,
which we've seen for folks that are in the VISTA program,
they can be extraordinarily low,
you could really stretch the value of that award
out over a seven year period and especially for those of you guys
that are in the IBR program who are looking
at a public service track, that can really get you eight years
down the road towards paying your loans off
at a much lower rate without ever putting a dollar
out of your own pocket except for the fact
that you invested in national service.
So you should really take a look at that.
And again after completing those 120 payments,
and again including those 12 that you'll get for being
in VISTA, submit those remaining documents to the PSLF program
so that they can be forgiven.
They won't forgive them if you don't submit them,
so documentation for your records and for use
of these benefits in the future is what you need to keep
in mind, not just now to set up those habits,
but to maintain them over time
to get the most out of all of this.
>> Great thank you Josh, at this time we're going
to open the lines up for questions,
so operator could you please explain how VISTA's ask
their questions?
>> Yes Miss Stegman, thank you.
If you would like to ask a question,
please press star then 1 on your touchtone phone.
You will be prompted to record your first and last name,
please do check that your phone is unmated before recording
and state your name slowly and clearly.
If you should decide to withdraw a question from queue,
please press star 2, once again to ask a question press star 1
and record your name, one moment
to give participants time to get in the queue.
>> Wonderful and while we're waiting on that we have a couple
of questions that have popped up during the Q&A
that I can ask now, are there -- so Josh are there any instances
where VISTA's can get a prorated ed award?
>> There are, there are, is there a second part
to that question or is that all of it?
>> Yeah [Inaudible] says "I have the potential to be hired
on fulltime for my organization before the end of my service,
but will still finish my ed are there any chances
that I will get some of that education award?
>> Let's -- that's a very specific question and it's one
that I'm happy to address.
If you are looking at completing your service and even
if [inaudible] you know technically fulfilled,
your service isn't contingent upon
that assignment description,
it's contingent upon a 365 day calendar.
You need to complete the full year of service in order
to successfully earn these benefits.
And if you exit the program
for what's considered a non-compelling reason,
which new employment is considered to be non-compelling,
you would forfeit the benefit, the full benefit
and there would not be a prorated amount made available
to you.
If you're looking at an employment situation,
like the one that was described here that's
at your current project site or through that program,
that's a great thing and I would coordinate with them
to make sure that you can take advantage
of the opportunity there while fulfilling your obligation
that you already took on with VISTA.
>> Thank you.
Does Peace Corp service count towards the public service loan
forgiveness program?
>> That's an excellent question
and honestly I don't know directly the answer to that.
I think that it very well may be given the type of service
that it is, Andy are you at all familiar with that?
>> Not directly, but I think it should certainly count,
you know just based on the nature
of the Peace Corp service.
I think that would fit within the definition, but...
>> Yeah.
>>... it's always worth asking before you enroll in 28 months
of Peace Corp service.
>> That's a good point.
So yeah definitely check out the online resources from PSLF
and they should be able to help provide some guidance on that
for you as well and I believe that's
through the Department of Education.
>> Great and do you actually apply
for the public service loan forgiveness program before you
start your 10 years of work for in public service
or can you apply at any time and use past years
of your public service or Americorp?
>> Sure the way I understand this program
to function is it's really about maintaining your documents
and then submitting them.
The public service loan forgiveness program isn't
sitting there and enrolling you in it.
In advance it's more about the career path that you've chosen,
coordinating that and documenting it and submitting
to them, those are specifics for the way they administer
that program and I suggest you address it directly with them
to ensure that you're not putting yourself
in a tough situation as far as establishing
that you're actually qualifying and doing the right things.
But my understanding of it as long as you have
that documentation that you were working within those --
within that public service track
that you've been making those consecutive payments
and you can submit all that and show them
with that documentation at the end of those 10 years
or the 120 payments, then you should qualify
for that forgiveness.
Again, touch base with that particular program
to make sure you have all the details as to how that works,
but as far as qualification goes just document,
document, document.
>> Thank you another question is
"After our forbearance request goes through, do you still have
to contact our loan lender"?
>> It's good -- it's a good practice actually to follow-up
with the lender to make sure they've got it.
We do see forbearance requests hang out in the pending status
for awhile, and the reason we see that is
because some lenders actually don't monitor it as proactively
through the Website as they probably ought to.
So if you prompt your lender and say I've applied for forbearance
through Americorp, can you please check up on the status,
that'll be a good idea just to prompt them
so that it doesn't have to sit in that status any longer
than is necessary, however,
having said that from my personal experience,
putting my own loans in forbearance, I was able to do
that in the same day really
because I made a follow-up phone call.
This tools are there, but we want you to take an active role
in managing them, so the more actively you approach that,
the better off you're going to be.
>> Great, so while someone is in forbearance,
does that count towards the 120 payments
for the public service loan forgiveness?
>> It absolutely does.
>> Okay great, that was easy.
[Laughter]
>> Uh-hum.
>> Can you put in a request
in for paying off interest during the year
or is it only possible to request it
after the year is over?
>> Sure, to the question, you can only use the forbearance
after completing the year.
Just like I was mentioning in the presentation,
forbearance like the education award is contingent upon
completely service successfully and that's not specific
to something like your [inaudible] that's the
calendar year.
So you need to finish that entire term in order
to take advantage and if you were
to forfeit the education award for leaving early
or for any other reason,
you would likewise forfeit the forbearance.
>> Great. [Background Sound] And if a Stafford loan a private
or Federal Direct loan, can you use your education award
for a Stafford loan?
>> I believe you can use the ed award for Stafford loans yes.
And I'm not sure about the public status
of Stafford loans directly,
but I do believe they are clearly qualified to be used
for the education award.
>> Great, can an award be used for informal education costs
such as language software
or classes not in-credited institutions,
like museums or nature centers?
>> It's all continued upon being a title four institution.
So if there is some type of program that they have
or they're part of a larger, say University system,
that is a title four institution,
you very well may be able too.
That's going to be a case-by-case look,
so you'll need to talk to the institution
and the first question ought to be "Are you guys Title four"?
And take it from there.
>> Great, so we're going to take a pause and go to the phones.
>> Thank you.
The first question will come
from Michelle Daniel [assumed spelling] your line is open.
>> Hi yes, I just wanted to know if it was too late
to join the IBR program?
>> No, it's never too late.
You can always apply to that program at anytime,
it's simply based on what your income is.
So if you're making a payment at a higher rate, stop that,
go get out there and take advantage of the benefit.
>> Any further questions Ma'am?
>> Oh well how would I go about getting on to this program?
Do I need to contact a particular person
or how would I get information to start this IBR program?
>> Sure and I'm sorry we don't have the contact information
readily available for you, but we can try to make sure
that gets posted or sent out through some notes,
do we have the ability to send information to the folks
that have participated today?
>> Yes we do.
>> Okay great, I'm just going to make a quick note here
to send the IBR contact information.
>> Thank you very much.
>> Uh-huh.
>> Next is Jessica Whitoff [assumed spelling],
your line is open.
>> Hello, Jessica?
>> I'm sorry, I read the wrong name let me [inaudible].
>> Okay.
>> I'm back to that one.
Now we have Jessica Whitoff open, my apologies.
>> Yep, can you hear me?
>> Yes.
>> Yes go ahead.
>> Oh you actually answered my question previously,
I star 1 again, but it didn't take me out of queue apparently.
>> [Laughter] Okay.
>> To take out is star 2, just a reminder.
>> Okay.
>> Thank you.
Next we have Riley Kegan [assumed spelling] your line
is open.
>> Yes, hi I was wondering if the IBR
and PS outlet program are mutually exclusive
or if you can do them together?
>> You certainly should use them together,
they're definitely not exclusive, the only thing
about the PSLS is it's, instead of being for any American
that holds a Federal Direct loan, it's for any American
who holds the loan, but then is also within that career track
that I described, so either with a government agency
and non-profit or a school district.
>> Okay and I'm in my second year of my VISTA
so if I finish this one I'll have two years payments,
does it work retroactively, like will --
should I apply now and only future payments will be counted
or will the last year also be counted?
>> Sure you've been making payments,
like say we use the forbearance example,
did you go into forbearance?
>> Yes.
>> Okay great, during that forbearance period
for both years, each one of those consecutive payments
of zero counts towards that 120, so you will come
out of two years of service with 24 out of 120 done,
and if you're entering into one of those career tracks
that PSLF addresses, then continue
to make those consistent payments and then use IBR
in concert with that, so that you can get those payments
to the lowest possible manageable out.
And then stretch that out as long as you can
out of the education award.
Then once that benefit is out, then you're looking
at maintaining minimal payments for the rest of the life
of that term, which by that point ought
to be another 24 consecutive payments and then you'll be able
to submit it and they should be able to wipe the rest of it out.
>> Okay great, but it does work retroactively like if I were
to apply like at the end of this year I would be able to say
that for the past two years these payments have been made,
like similar with the first...
>> Yeah.
>> ... [inaudible], okay.
>> Yes you will, yeah.
>> Okay I'm sorry last question you mentioned these documents
that we need to submit at the end of the 120 payments,
would that just be like notes from CNCS saying
that they paid the forbearance
and then whatever documents I have
for my payment each month...
>> Yeah that's a good question, for --
so your tax forms out to address most of it,
because it tells people where you work.
So they need additional documentation from that,
you can always print out your service letters
and certification that you completed the program.
So you've proved -- I would print out the service letter
that will be made available to you as soon as you finish
and each one you get one per service year, so you'll have two
and those will be your documentation
that you've completed it and then along with the tax forms
and the receipts from making your regular payments
to the loan holder, to prove that each one
of those 120 payments was made,
that should be the documentation you need.
Above and beyond that, I would check with the PSLF program
to see if there's any type of additional reporting
that you need to do to ensure that they have everything
that they need, so there's no hiccup in the process for you.
>> Okay, great thank you so much.
>> Uh-huh.
>> Thank you Samantha Barn [assumed spelling] you may ask
your question.
>> Good afternoon I'm just [inaudible] re-asking the same
question, but I'm a little confused,
so if I go do the low payment program, while I'm in VISTA
and I'm making payments,
that would count towards my 120 payments?
>> Yes every payment that you make towards your loan,
so let's say for example you're on the stipend...
>> Okay.
>> ...but you wanted to do the PSLF program and you wanted
to use IBR, you can still do that.
>> I'm sorry.
>> And if you're making [inaudible background
comment] payments...
>> Okay.
>>...I'm sorry, I was just going to if you're making --
yeah thank you, if you're making those payments, even if they're
at that lower rate, each one of those payments counts.
>> Okay.
>> As long as they're consecutive,
you got to just keep up, keep up the payments and being
in VISTA is public service.
>> Right.
>> So you're already automatically meeting
that PSLF qualification.
>> Okay, but at the end when they pay the forbearance back,
the interest that accrued, does that count as one payment?
>> I don't think forbearance counts as a separate payment,
I think that's an arrangement that we've made...
>> Okay.
>> ...directly with your lender that's an additional benefit
beyond the education award, because it doesn't pay
down the principle it just pays ...
>> Right.
>>... that interest.
>> Okay that's very much what I wanted to know, thank you.
>> Yep, sure.
>> Thank you our next question will come Annalisa --
I'm sorry Annalisa Segal [assumed spelling].
>> Okay can you hear me?
>> Uh-hum yeah.
>> Yes we can.
>> Oh okay so I was figuring out --
I was trying to do some quick math and you were saying
about how if we pay six -- use $600 --
less than $600 every year, you know, it won't get taxed
and I was curious as to how we --
because it sounds like you've done this before, like how --
because on -- with a 5,350 and having to do it
over seven years, if you spread it out that far, like you have
to do more, at some point you get taxed
and I didn't know exactly how to find tax brackets to try to see
when it's most beneficial to do more than 600.
>> Sure now I get you, you're trying to take advantage
of as much as you absolutely can.
So here -- the thing about the $600 minimum,
is people don't start school or exit school or pay
or unless they have an existing loan payment,
they won't necessarily make school based payments
out of the education award every year.
A lot of folks will have a break in-service or enter
into a semester or take an extension course
or a trade school course that will come in under that amount
and if that's the case
and that's all you paid then there's no tax on that.
But anything that's again, that exceeds that 599 to 600
or more you'll get that 1099R and then you'll have
to go ahead and process it.
>> Okay so do you know --
okay I just have to do IRS research I guess for .
>> Yeah and as far as actually finding where you are
in the tax brackets, I think you can just Google it
or you can find it through the IRS Website,
you certainly can I believe its [background sound] I don't want
to quote the form, the IRS form so you can get wrong,
it's like a number that I don't remember off the top
of my head, but.
>> No worries.
>> But it's out there trust me.
>> Okay and thanks that's all I remember, yeah that's it.
>> Okay.
>> [Background Sound] Thank you we'll go
on to Gwen Carter [assumed spelling] your line is open.
>> Hello.
>> Hello.
>> Yes I am serving on a [inaudible] where I would really
like to go on and take classes
for Brent Whiting [assumed spelling], several other classes
and take it online, if I do that now before the end
of year will I be reimbursed for paying for all
of these classes online and my laptop
and everything to do that?
>> That's a good question and the answer
on that is it depends.
The reason this -- the way this would work for you,
if you're looking at taking courses while your in-service
which is totally allowable as long as you qualify
that by making sure that your service obligations come first,
you can definitely take those courses.
As far as the actual payment of those courses,
if you have loan debt, then you can use the education award
for it, but if you take those expenses out of pocket
and then later want to apply the education award,
it doesn't work that way.
So if you are looking at --
because you haven't earned the award yet,
do you follow what I'm saying?
Does that make sense?
>> Yes because it is not earned
until after I have finished my year's service.
>> That's right so I mean say you needed to you know take
out a federal loan to take care of those school expenses,
you can do that, but sense you haven't earned the award you
can't apply it until you've earned it.
>> All right so anything that I would purchase out of pocket
or a loan before my end of year service would not be reimbursed?
>> Yeah not through the education award,
so if you're looking at actually taking advantage of the award
to the greatest possible degree, I would explore whether
or not it's worth it to you to take
out a small federal direct loan to cover those costs
so then you can apply the award afterwards,
but that would be the only way to apply the award.
>> It could be applied to a federal loan?
>> Uh-huh and then of course after you've earned the award,
you could apply it to future costs.
>> All right, okay thank you very much.
>> Uh-huh.
>> Next question is from Brian North [assumed spelling] your
line is open.
>> I remember you were saying something about not being able
to double-dip with the education award and forgiveness
and I got confused so I was just trying to ...
>> Sure.
>>... get verification on that.
>> Sure, now it's an important point to mention and it's for --
this is for the Perkin's loans holders.
Say you have a Perkins loan and you want
to use the forgiveness program, you are entitled to do that.
However, what you can't do is use the forgiveness program
and earn an education award.
So that's where the double-dipping I mentioned
comes in.
You would have to be signed up for the stipend in order
to use the Perkin's loan.
I'm sorry to use the stipend in order
to use the Perkin's loan forgiveness program,
does that make sense?
>> No, but its okay because I don't have a Perkin's loan, so.
>> Okay, all right if Perkins loan holders out there,
if you're listening, if there's a question related
to that I'm happy to try and address that in more detail.
>> Was that all Sir?
>> Yeah, that's the only thing I was confused at.
>> All right thank you, Claudia Wald [assumed spelling] your
line is open.
>> Hi, hello, can you hear?
>> Yes, uh-hum.
>> Okay so I had a question
about loan forbearance interest accrued.
>> Okay.
>> So I recall that it was mentioned
that that can also be paid by the corporation.
>> Uh-huh.
>> Can I -- already have --
I already actually have a statement
that amortizes the interest through the term of service.
>> Uh-hum.
>> Can I submit that to kind of sort of get ahead
on the paperwork, do I have to wait until -- and it's really --
you know what I mean just sort of waiting till the last minute
to take care of important financial [laughter].
>> No, I understand and I definitely understand the desire
to get that process moving.
The same thing here applies as it does
with the earlier question,
you have to have earned the benefit before you can apply it,
so it doesn't benefit you.
>> No, no [inaudible] I'm saying sort just to put it in the queue
so that it's there for the time when the service is done.
>> Yes, so back on the --
so the same point I was making is you can't actually request an
interest accrual payment, there's no way to queue it
up [background sound].
>> Okay.
>> Until you've finished your service term.
>> Okay. And then my other question is if your service --
I'm sorry if your federal loan is transferred
to a different loan servicer.
>> Uh-huh.
>> Have you guys sort
of [inaudible] how you been managing working
with private loan servicer?
>> Sure so if your federal loan is consolidated
under a private holder.
>> Yeah.
>> I would explore getting your loan consolidated
under Federal Direct, it's...
>> No, no, no your direct consolidated loan is sort
of bundled or [inaudible] where they bundle these loans,
the whole bundle is transferred to a new loan servicer.
>> Okay that's a good question, I don't have an immediate answer
for that, our trust officers,
through the national service hotline can help you address
that type of issue especially with specific types
of you know consolidation that may happen under bundling
or transferring the loans from federal
over to a private holder.
I know in some cases I've seen them work, I don't know
if they work in all cases so I don't want to say you know yes
to your question and then have you find
out that it doesn't actually fall into that for you.
So the best resource I can refer
to you too is the National Service Hotline and request
that you have a trust officer review your issue.
>> Okay and another thing is for a loan for the education award,
if your education award exceeds the amount of your debt
from your prior education,
like let's say let's assume you're not going
to use it towards your perspective education, right.
>> Right.
>> The balance -- how is that --
like what governs how that is use [inaudible]?
>> Sure, so just to echo back what I'm hearing from you.
So let's say you had a $1,000 left in loans and you signed
up for the ed award so you end up with $5,500
in education award, but only $1,000 in debt, right,
right so you have the $4,500 balance sitting there.
If you don't use that over that seven years for one
of those qualified uses I described,
then the loan aridity award expires.
>> All right so [inaudible]?
>> There's not a way to transfer it or apply it
to something else outside of a title four institution.
>> Title Four Institutions are the only --
okay, okay I understand those are all my questions.
>> Okay.
>> Okay thank you very much everyone,
we will have an opportunity to get back to the phone lines
in a few minutes and we will take everyone's question
in the Q&A, but right now we want to continue
on with the rest of the Webinar so that those that have
to leave can get the full benefit.
So there are some resources on the VISTA campus
and they can be found in the license of this dissection
and in the life after VISTA box at the bottom right-hand corner.
So in addition to the resources on the my.americorp.page
for the education award, please go to the life as a VISTA
and in the life after VISTA section for more resources.
>> Josh, do you want to give us some next steps?
>> Oh yeah absolutely, so after all this conversation we want
to get you on a path to making the most of these benefits.
So you then you have your basics covered and these are a few
that we think everybody ought to consider.
Put it on your to-do list if you haven't done this already.
Take the education award course, it's useful,
it's on the VISTA campus Website, it explains a lot
of what we just covered and it serves as a great reference
over the course of your year.
Also you need to make sure you check with your lender,
if you haven't already to make sure
that your loan can be placed into forbearance.
So please do that especially those of you
who are selecting the education award.
No matter the benefit you're selecting, just to harp
on this one more time, explore income based loan repayment,
get those amounts down to the lowest possible amount
for yourselves.
And then also make sure that your lender is listed
on My Americorp, it sounds like a simple thing,
the fast majority of lenders are,
so most of you will find them easily
and irreparably listed there, if they are not
for any reason though, you can simply remedy
that by contacting them, it doesn't hurt to be preemptive,
so by just calling a lender up
and saying you know do you guys use or are you familiar
with using Americorp benefits, do you have points
of contact to process those.
So that you know they're ready to receive your request.
And then the last thing which is very important
and it's shown itself
as important throughout these conversations today s
to know what type of loan you hold.
As it was expressed before, there's some different kinds
out there, there's different implications
for the way your loans have been treated
as to how we can apply benefits for you.
So the more you know about your loan type,
the better you're going to be able to adapt and make the most
of what's out there for you.
>> Thank you Josh and could you give us some contact information
where people who have additional questions can reach someone
who can respond to their needs?
>> You bet, so I mentioned it before the National Service
Hotline this is the best avenue, for anybody that has questions,
not just related to the education award,
but to your service, to your benefits, to questions
about policy or procedure about how to address issues.
The number is 800-942-2677,
again that number's 800-942-2677.
Please take that number down and take advantage of it,
we're available Monday through Friday, they're staff both
at the very front of the line and there's specific queues
and teams that address questions like our trust officers and deal
with education award issues.
Or there's the VISTA Members Support Unit where I work
who can help you with a variety of issues apart from that.
So please keep that in mind and we'll be happy to help you.
>> Thank you very much, on your right-hand side you will see
that there is an evaluation,
if you wouldn't mind taking a few minutes
to answer the questions in this poll, we'd like to be able
to improve these Webinars and your input helps us do this.
We are going to remain on the line
for an additional 30 minutes to take any tips
and resources you may have and we will answer questions
in the Q&A and by phone.
If you must leave we thank you for attending this Webinar
and we want to call your attention
to another Webinar we have coming up next month.
On January 16th at 2 PM Eastern time,
we will be offering a Webinar on Say it Like You Mean It,
Communicating Your VISTA Experience.
Please check the VISTA events calendar
and the ongoing learning pages on the VISTA campus
for upcoming Webinars.
And now we will open the phone lines again
to continue your questions.
>> Thank you so much today.
>> Thank you.
Next up is Jessica Harper [assumed spelling],
your line is open.
>> Hello, I just had a question
about the forbearance payments applying
to the [inaudible] public service plan deal, what if --
so I graduated from college in May and I started my VISTA term
in July, so I kept the six months grace period hadn't been
over yet until this month.
>> Uh-huh.
>> So did my forbearance count for the grace period as well,
or did it just start counting for December?
>> It -- sure I would talk to a lender
about how the grace period is addressed, if you weren't
in forbearance formally through us, then I don't believe so,
so double check that and see how they would apply it, however,
by virtue of being in that forbearance program again,
you know each month that you're in it counts towards it,
so I would get into it as soon as you can
if you're not already there.
>> Yeah, yeah I already got applied and approved for it
and everything, I was just --
because you know I got the letter
that said I wouldn't have had to start repaying until December.
>> Sure.
>> I was confused about that, but thank you.
>> Uh-huh.
>> Next up is Kevin Hall [assumed spelling] your line
is open.
>> Hello, I'm curious about does taking the education award
prevent you from being able to participate
in the public service loan forgiveness program?
>> Not at all, not at all in any way.
You can certainly participate and you should,
if you're within one of those career tracks that it addresses.
You can actually use the education award to stretch
out the term over that seven years of eligibility,
if you use say the income based repayment program
to get the amounts down to where you can the value of the award
over that time, that really just depends
on how well you manage using the IBR
and how consistently you make those payments.
>> All right cool, thanks a lot.
>> Janelle Johnson [assumed spelling] you may ask
your question.
>> Can you hear me?
>> Uh-huh.
>> Oh perfect, okay so my question is if I had --
it's regarding the public service loan forgiveness,
if I had a loan that was four years old for example,
but I've been working in a non-profit for one year,
do the last four years
of payment work towards the 120 payments or just the years
that I've been in a non-profit?
>> I believe the payments only qualify through working
within one of the PSLF identified [inaudible background
conversation] types of service,
so you said you were working in private industry?
>> Previous, my years
in Americorp obviously is my first year I guess.
>> Right, okay yeah I would double check with them
to see if there's anything.
>> Okay.
>> That you can use out those payment terms, but yeah it has
to be consecutive while you're employed in one
of the things they qualify.
>> Oh okay and then if you miss one
of the 120 payments, does it start over?
>> That's a good question, all the material I've seen related
to it, is very specific to it being consecutive,
so breaks in the loan payment may disqualify to some degree
or it may require some kind of catch-up, I would talk
to them about that for sure.
>> Okay, perfect thank you so much.
>> Jill Gideon [assumed spelling] your line is open.
>> Hi, I have a question about the ed award in regards
to potential institutions like how are institutions
that can match the ed award value and I was wondering
if there's like a site or a Webpage that you can go
to to find out which schools do match the ed award?
>> Yeah there definitely is
and the education award Webpage there, I don't know
if you recall that when Andy was showing the tour
of it what the other resources are available,
there is that match list, I believe through that link,
it shows you currently all the institutions that match
or it shows where the schools at least have registered
with us that choose to match.
It doesn't hurt to ask your institution though if they will,
if you don't know that they already are,
but at least it gets you started on that path
from the edaward.org Website.
>> Okay cool thank.
>> Yep thank you.
>> This is Andy, I'll just add to that if you go
to EdAward.org, look across the top menu, you'll see schools
and if you click there then you'll see the link
to the matching school's list.
If you find your school is not on the list, then there's a link
to some information about how you can encourage your school
to become a matching school, so don't give up hope
if they're not on the list whether you --
that's where you see it now, but we'd love to get your help
in identifying schools
that could be added to the matching list.
>> Okay, all right thank you.
>> And thanks Andy.
>> Samuel Train [assumed spelling] you may ask
your question.
>> Oh sure I mean if you want to do that to manage the amount
over time of the principle versus the interest,
that's again totally up to you,
but as far as the interest that's accruing while you're
in service with us, as long as you're in forbearance at the end
of that year, we're going to make that payment to them.
So it's you know less money out of your pocket,
but again if you want to manage your loan that way that's fine.
>> All right thank you very much.
>> Uh-huh.
>> Thank you [background sound] next
up is Willie Gore [assumed spelling] your line is open.
>> Hello.
>> Hello
>> Hey I plan on using a great deal
of my education award this year on my past loans,
my Stafford Loans, I'm afraid of how much I'll be taxed
at the end of the of the year and I read something
about a tax pair relief act of 1997 or something,
do you know anything about that and can that help me?
>> I'm not familiar with that piece of legislation,
I will say this about taxes and the award, you are going
to be liable for the4 taxes
that the award counts toward your total income amount.
So let's say that in a tax year you don't earn enough
to where you would have to pay any taxes
and the education award may or may not push you up to a tax --
to an income level where you would need
to be taxed at a different rate.
That's something you'll have to look at individually.
There's not any special exemption that I'm aware
of that would allow you to somehow circumvent
that tax liability, if it does in fact push you
up into a bracket that where you would owe taxes.
It's just something to consider when you're using the award
and it's something to help you prepare financially
for the tax implications of how you choose to apply it.
>> Okay, okay that works all right thanks.
>> Thank you Paige Russell [assumed spelling] your line
is open.
>> Hi I have similar questions
about the Perkin's loan forgiveness program.
>> Yeah.
>> Okay so you were saying you get up to 15%,
how is that determined?
>> That's something for the Perkin's loan program
to explain, what I've seen and the material on it that we have
on our Website, specifies that the 15% is --
the up to 15% is in that language
which is why I stress that, I don't know
if there are other qualifiers on that to be honest with you,
that's something I would address directly
with a Perkins loan holder, so that you can make sure
that you can get all 15% applied.
>> Okay so I should probably want to look into that before --
is it up to 10 months or how many months was it?
Because I have the education award chosen right now.
>> Okay yeah so if you've chose the education award right now,
you need to switch over to the stipend by the end
of your 10th month of service, what month are you currently in?
>> Four.
>> Okay, yeah you have plenty of time.
>> And then so -- through the IBR program, if the loan is
in forbearance, why would you apply for the IBR
if you're not making payments?
>> Because it's -- well as you come out of service
for that tax year, your payment amount will either jump
up to what it was without the IBR or it's going to take a look
at what your taxes -- your ...
>> Oh okay.
>>... income of that year was going to be...
>> Okay.
>> ... it can definitely be to your advantage to be in IBR,
that way when you come out of service you're not hit
with a big loan payment.
>> I see, okay that answers my question, thank you.