Important Financial Aid Updates and FAQs Updated 04/2021
The Financial Aid Office is open. We do encourage you to call or email to set up an appointment if you need assistance. If you have questions, please email us at financialaid@helenacollege.edu.
The Financial Aid Office, with guidance from the U.S. Department of Education, is working to address questions and concerns of Helena College students who are impacted by the recent developments from the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The Financial Aid Office appreciates your understanding during this time and will do our very best to assist you. In order to answer some of the most frequently asked questions, we have created this COVID-19 FAQ.
This information will be updated regularly as it becomes available to inform our students, faculty, staff, and larger community regarding any possible financial aid implications related to COVID-19.
- Current Pell Grant and SEOG awards should not be affected
- Current Federal Direct Loan awards should not be affected
- The U.S. Department of Education is updating the following site regularly: https://studentaid.gov/announcements-events/coronavirus.
- Federal Work Study (see section below)
- For all Federal Subsidized, Unsubsidized and PLUS loan borrowers:
- All interest will be waived until September 30, 2021
- Administrative forbearance will not result in capitalized interest
- Interest waiver will be automatic
- All interest will be waived until September 30, 2021
- For Federal Subsidized, Unsubsidized, and PLUS loan borrowers in repayment status:
- Payments paused until September 30, 2021
- Borrowers can request an administrative forbearance from their loan servicer
- Coronavirus and Loan Forbearance Information for student and parent borrowers.
- To provide relief to student loan borrowers during the COVID-19 national emergency, the US Department of Education has made an administrative forbearance option available to federal student loan borrowers, which allows you to temporarily stop making your monthly loan payments. Read more about these options in the borrower Q&As to learn more, and contact your loan servicer to find out your specific options.
- Borrowers can complete an Income Driven Repayment (IDP) application
- Borrowers have the option to continue paying normally-- this would decrease priniple significantly
- Involuntary collections will be suspended
- Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF)
- Months of paused payments on qualifying student loans will still count towards the PSLF 120 payments for public employees
- Contact loan servicer to ensure correct status of forbearance
- Possible legislation coming to include months of service for job attached, furloughed employees and public employees working less than 30 hours due to COVID-19
- Months of paused payments on qualifying student loans will still count towards the PSLF 120 payments for public employees
Other HC updates related to COVID-19 are available at: http://helenacollege.edu/campus_safety/health_advisories.aspx
Information will be updated as it becomes available.