In an April 7, 2025, Electronic Announcement, we announced that the transition of the Total and Permanent Disability (TPD) discharge process to StudentAid.gov was complete. As of March 23, 2025, borrowers submit their TPD forms and track their progress to forgiveness on StudentAid.gov. TPD discharge processing also resumed in March.
We are pleased to announce that the TPD discharge loan assignment process has now resumed as well. Loan holders (i.e., guaranty agencies, lenders, and schools participating in the Federal Perkins Loan Program that are servicing their Perkins Loan portfolio) may submit loan transfers to the new TPD loan assignment servicer. Loan holders may submit all TPD assignments held since Dec. 20, 2024, including a TPD assignment rejected by the previous TPD servicer (this would have occurred after Dec. 20, 2024, but before Feb. 9, 2025).
We have updated our TPD discharge assignment procedures to reflect the new TPD loan assignment servicer. Please see the following sections for further details. Generally, the regulations and overall process for TPD discharges has not changed. The key change to the procedures is to the servicer that handles the processing of a loan assignment from a loan holder.
The new mailing address for the submission of loans for TPD assignment is as follows:
U.S. Department of Education – Nelnet
Attn: TPD Reassignment
121 S. 13th Street, Suite 127
Lincoln, NE 68508
Note: Loan holders must include the line "Attn: TPD Reassignment" in the mailing address. If an incomplete address is used, assignment documents may be misrouted and timely receipt and processing cannot be guaranteed.
We have updated the address in the TPD discharge assignment procedure documents, as described in more detail below.
Guaranty agencies will use the updated TPD discharge assignment procedures that are attached to this announcement. The procedures and five appendices have been reformatted but the content has not changed in a significant way, other than necessary updates to reflect the new TPD loan assignment servicer. These are the procedures and appendices:
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Procedures: Provides all operational instructions.
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Appendix I – Assignment File Format: Provides the assignment file format for TPD assignments submitted electronically.
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Appendix II – Assignment Form: Provides the TPD assignment form and instructions for assignments that are submitted manually (on paper).
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Appendix III – SAIG Record Specifications: Provides record specifications for submitting assignments through the Student Aid Internet Gateway (SAIG).
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Appendix IV – Manifest Instructions: Contains instructions for the manifest that must accompany hard copy files, including a revised Sample Manifest.
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Appendix V – Co-made Loans and Endorsers: Explains the required handling of joint consolidation loans, co-made PLUS loans, and endorsers who are disabled.
For schools participating in the Perkins Loan Program, the updated TPD Perkins Loan Assignment Guide is now available on the Campus-Based Processing Information Page on the Knowledge Center website.
We updated the procedures to reflect a school’s interaction with the new TPD loan assignment servicer, and we made changes to the Loan Holder Notification (LHN) section. Otherwise, the remainder of the procedures have not changed significantly. The updated procedures replace all previous operational guidance for Perkins TPD assignment processing.
Note: We also updated the Perkins Loan Assignment and Liquidation Guide, available on the Campus-Based Processing Information Page, to reflect the new contact information for the TPD loan assignment servicer.
The following are important reminders regarding Perkins TPD discharge assignments:
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The LHN File is the primary form of communication of TPD discharge information between the TPD loan servicer and your school. To ensure schools receive LHN files timely, schools must be enrolled for the TPD LHN service via FSA Partner Connect.
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Schools must ensure loans are assigned to the TPD loan assignment servicer after they receive the LHN file with the reason code “APPAPPR.” Schools should not assign loans prior to this approval reason code as the borrower has not yet been approved for TPD discharge.
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If the borrower qualifies for discharge based on documentation from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the loans are not assigned to the U.S. Department of Education (the Department). We will notify the school of the effective date of the VA determination. Upon receiving this notification, the school discharges the borrower’s loans and returns to the sender any payments received on or after the effective date of the VA determination that supported the borrower’s eligibility for discharge.
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If a school is liquidating its Federal Perkins Loan Program portfolio and has TPD loan assignments that have not yet received approval from the TPD loan assignment servicer, the school should instead refer the loans through the “regular” liquidation and assignment process and submit them to the Department’s Perkins Loan Servicer, ECSI. In these cases, the reason for the assignment should be marked as “Liquidation.” Perkins schools should refer to the Perkins Loan Assignment and Liquidation Guide available on the Campus-Based Processing Information Page.
Questions about the TPD discharge loan assignment process or about loans after they have been assigned due to TPD should be directed to the TPD loan assignment servicer at OnboardingDisAssign@nelnet.studentaid.gov.
The U.S. Department of Education strives to make all content accessible to everyone. While these documents do not currently meet the standards of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, Federal Student Aid is working to create accessible versions. If you need access to these documents before the accessible versions are available, please contact the Information Technology Accessibility Program Help Desk at ITAPSupport@ed.gov to help facilitate.