Find Out How to Qualify for Having 100% of your Perkins Loans Forgiven via the Perkins Loan Cancellation Program

It may not be the best Student Loan Forgiveness Program for Nurses on offer, but the Perkins Loan Cancellation Program is pretty dang close to being top of the pile.

Perkins Loan Forgiveness for Nurses, Licensed Medical Technicians and Medical Assistants allows full-time Nurses and Licensed Medical Technicians to receive student loan debt forgiveness benefits on a percentage of their outstanding principal balance and interest accumulation for each year of qualifying service that they complete in the field.

Officially called the Perkins Loan Cancellation Program, the reality is that “loan cancellation” operates the same way as all the other Federal Student Loan Forgiveness Programs: once you satisfy the eligibility conditions of the program, some part of your student debt gets wiped out (“forgiven”).

Perhaps the biggest benefit to the Perkins forgiveness program is that you’re able to receive debt forgiveness for both the original principal amount of your loan, as well as the interest that’s been accumulating on your debt, and that you can qualify for a 100% forgiveness benefit after just 5 years worth of service (to put it into context, that’s twice as fast as the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program!).



Which Nurses Are Eligible for Perkins Cancellation?

The Department of Education sets the rules about which nurses are eligible for Perkins loan forgiveness, and currently, each of the following positions allows you to qualify for the benefit:

  • Registered Nurses (RNs)
  • Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs)
  • Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs)
  • Medical Assistants (MAs)
  • American Registered Nursing Practitioners (ARNPs)

But that’s not all, because Perkins Loan Cancellation benefits are also available to Licensed Medical Technicians as well.


Get Help With Your Loans!

If you're truly struggling with student loan debt, then you should consider paying a Student Loan Debt Relief Agency for help. Why? Because the people working at these companies deal with student loans all day, every day, and they're your best chance at figuring out how to get your loans back under control.

For help with Federal Student Loans call the Student Loan Relief Helpline at 1-888-906-3065. They will review your case, evaluate your options for switching repayment plans, consolidating your loans, or pursuing forgiveness benefits, then set you up to get rid of the debt as quickly as possible.

For help with Private Student Loans call McCarthy Law PLC at 1-877-317-0455. McCarthy Law will negotiate with your lender to settle your private loans for much less than you currently owe (typically 40%), then get you a new loan for the lower, settled amount so you can pay off the old loan, repair your credit and reduce your monthly payments.

I've spent 10 years interviewing debt relief agencies, talking to all sorts of "experts", and these are the only two companies that I trust to help my readers. If you have a bad experience with either of them, please make sure to come back and let me know about it in the Comments!


Which Licensed Medical Technicians Are Eligible?

Licensed Medical Technicians and Allied Health Professionals working in healthcare fields like therapy, medical technology, dental hygiene, and others, may also take advantage of the Perkins Loan Cancellation Program.

To qualify for the benefits, Licensed Medical Technicians must be certified, registered, or licensed by a state agency under which they provide health care services, and they must fit the definition of being someone who “assists, facilitates, or complements the work of physicians or other healthcare specialists”.

Here’s an example list of Licensed Medical Technicians who would qualify for Perkins loan forgiveness benefits:

  • Occupational Therapists
  • Occupational Therapist Assistants
  • Physician Assistants
  • Physical Therapists
  • Physical Therapist Assistants
  • Dental Hygienists
  • Dental Assistants
  • Dental Lab Technicians
  • Respiratory Therapists (Entry Level)
  • Respiratory Therapists (Advanced)
  • Perfusionists
  • Anesthesiologist Assistants
  • Medical Assistants
  • Orthostists / Prothetists
  • Speech Language Pathologists
  • Clinical Lab Technicians with Associates Degrees or Certificates
  • Medical Lab Technicians with Associates Degrees or Certificates

That’s a pretty good percentage of the healthcare industry right there, meaning that far more people than just nurses working in the field of healthcare are available for these excellent benefits.


How Much Debt Gets Cancelled?

Unlike some of the other Student Loan Debt Relief Programs on offer, this one doesn’t cap your benefits by a dollar amount, but as a percentage of your total debt.

Under the Perkins Loan Cancellation Program, a percentage of your loan gets cancelled for each year of service you complete in one of the fields listed above, according to the following schedule:

  • 15% of the Principal Loan + Interest Cancelled after 1 and 2 Years of Full Time Employment
  • 20% of the Principal Loan + Interest Cancelled after 3 and 4 Years of Full Time Employment
  • 30% of the Principal Loan + Interest Cancelled after 5 Years of Full Time Employment

And while some people may think that those numbers look small, these are some of the very best forgiveness benefits available to anyone, anywhere.

In fact, the way the numbers break down is that you’ll receive total cancellation benefits (with 100% of your loans forgiven) after just 5 years of medical service. That’s TWICE as fast as the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, the traditional Gold Standard in Federal Student Loan Forgiveness.

I’m not aware of any other program that offers complete student loan forgiveness for just 5 years of service, so in my opinion, this is one of the best forgiveness programs available anywhere.

In fact, even the excellent Military Student Loan Forgiveness Programs are capped by a set dollar amount, and may not completely wipe out student loans like this program does.


How Does Cancellation Work?

Here’s where things get a little tricky – technically, it’s up your school to determine whether or not you’re entitled to have your loan (or some portion of it) cancelled.

You will have to apply for cancellation benefits through your school, by obtaining, completing and submitting whatever forms your school requires (and this varies depending on where you went).

What you’ll want to do is get in touch with your school’s Student Accounting Department or Billing Service to request the required forms for Perkins Loan Cancellation, and they should guide you through the process from there.

You’ll need to provide documentation to prove that you’re working in the medical services field, either as a Nurse or Licensed Medical Technician, but once you can prove that you’re doing that, and that you’ve completed a year of service, your school should start the process of cancelling the appropriate portion of your outstanding student loans.



Questions?

If you’ve got further questions about how Perkins Loan Forgiveness for Nurses and Licensed Medical Technicians works, please contact your school’s billing department to get an official response.

However, if you have more general questions about student loans and handling student debt, then you’re in the right place, because I’ve spent 10 years developed over 100 Guides on different parts of the student loan debt process, and you’ll find them scattered throughout this website.

To ensure that you’re dealing with your debt in the best way possible, eliminating it as quickly and affordably as you can, be sure to look at my detailed Guides on handling both Federal and Private debt.

For Help with Federal Student Loan Debt, you’ll want to review my Guides on:

And if you need Help with Private Student Loan Debt, then you’ll definitely want to visit my Guides on:

Finally, if you’re looking for help with a very specific part of the process or advice on what you should do, then please feel free to post your question in the Comments section below.

I review Comments daily and will do my best to get you a response within 24 hours.

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Disclaimer:Information obtained from Forget Student Loan Debt is for educational purposes only. You should consult a licensed financial professional before making any financial decisions. This site receives some compensation through affiliate relationships. This site is not endorsed or affiliated with the U.S. Department of Education.

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Tim's experience struggling with crushing student loan debt led him to create the website Forget Student Loan Debt in 2011, where he offers advice, tips and tricks for paying off student loans as quickly and affordably as possible.