Total and Permanent Disability (TPD) Discharge

Total and Permanent Disability (TPD) Discharge is the federal program that discharges your federal student loans — including Direct Loans, FFEL Loans, Perkins Loans, and TEACH Grant service obligations — if you have a total and permanent disability that prevents you from working.

Three qualifying paths

You can qualify for TPD discharge through any one of three routes:

1. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA): If you're a veteran with a service-connected disability rated 100% disabling, or if the VA has determined you're individually unemployable due to service-connected disabilities.
2. Social Security Administration (SSA): If you're receiving Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits and your medical reviewer determined your disability will last at least five years, or is permanent.
3. Licensed physician: A doctor of medicine or osteopathy certifies that you are unable to engage in substantial gainful activity due to a physical or mental impairment that has lasted (or is expected to last) at least 60 months or to result in death.

Automatic discharge for VA-100%

If you're a veteran with a 100% disability rating from the VA, the Department of Education now identifies you automatically and starts the discharge process without you having to apply. You'll receive a letter explaining your options.

What gets discharged

Your federal student loan balance is fully discharged. You're no longer responsible for the debt. The Department of Education also refunds payments you made on those loans during the period leading up to the discharge in some circumstances.

Three-year monitoring period

For physician-certified and SSA-certified TPD discharges, the Department of Education previously imposed a three-year monitoring period during which you had to verify your continued disability and income status. Recent regulatory changes have removed this monitoring period for most new TPD discharges.

How to apply

The TPD discharge application is filed with Nelnet, the servicer that handles all TPD applications for the Department of Education. You'll provide documentation from the VA, SSA, or your physician depending on which path you're using.