Her $96,000 student loan jumped by $125,000, so she called the Education Department. They left her on hold for 8 hours — then blamed a ‘glitch’
'I just want to sign up for autopay, so I don't have to log in here and look at this number,' Leila explained.
When physician assistant Leila (@leila.the.pa) logged into her student loan account, she expected the balance due to be quite low. After all, she had been making timely payments to reduce it for some time now. Instead, she found herself staring at a staggering $220,810.73 balance, despite the initial principal being just $96,000. Yet somehow this wasn't even the worst part, as when she tried to get some more information on this and called the U.S. Department of Education, they put her on hold for 8 hours. She later took to Instagram on 7 April 2026 to detail her tale, garnering over 17,200 likes.
Entering a vicious debt cycle
The entire story began in 2012 when Leila first borrowed funds for her undergraduate degree. Eventually, she completed her master's degree as well in 2022 and started practicing as a physician assistant. Leila says she started out owing $96,000 in student loans and has since paid more than $165,000 toward the debt. So when she logged into her account recently, she was stunned to see the balance had somehow ballooned to $220,810.73. Or as she puts it, "I owe a mortgage amount of student loans." She further confessed, "I'm running backwards at this point."
Denied public service forgiveness
Hoping to manage her growing liability, Leila decided to work for a non-profit hospital straight out of college. She worked there for the next two and a half years, hoping to qualify for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness. After that, she decided to submit her paperwork just like the rest of her colleagues. However, to her surprise, her application got rejected. So, she applied again and again, only to be rejected all eight times. She had checked with HR beforehand; they told her that her work did qualify, leaving her clueless as to why her application kept getting rejected.
Stranded by the education department
Devastated by watching all her colleagues get accepted, Leila decided to contact the Education Department. She hoped that they'd provide her with some clarity, only for them to leave her on hold for eight hours. Even when they got back to her, the representative simply told her, "There's a glitch, and I don't know how to help you." To make matters worse, her loan provider, MOHELA, kept her account in forced administrative forbearance, preventing her from setting up automatic payments. "I just want to sign up for autopay, so I don't have to log in here and look at this number," she explained.
Desperately seeking legal help
All of this left Leila wondering why she had even been working for a non-profit for all these years. Which makes sense, as the sole reason she did this was to get loan forgiveness. Exhausted, Leila decided to quit the job. "The Department of Education and Mohela are the biggest con artists of all time," she wrote in her caption. At the same time, she also addressed all the people criticizing her for seeking loan forgiveness. She argued that she's been trying to pay it back, but even that isn't working out. This left her with no option but to ask for legal help from someone.
A similar story for thousands
While federal student loan forgiveness has seen a turnaround in recent years, the system remains a bureaucratic nightmare for the vast majority of applicants. Between 2018 and mid-2025, borrowers submitted a staggering 10.25 million claims seeking relief, yet the U.S. government reported only 719,297 federal student loans discharged during that same period, according to the Education Data Initiative. For borrowers like Leila, navigating this pipeline means facing near-impossible odds. Moreover, her experience reflects a broader problem with navigating PSLF. A 2021 study of 934 physician trainees found that nearly 20% of those actively participating in or planning to participate in the program said it had influenced their career decisions. Yet only 13.9% of those participants could correctly identify all the requirements for receiving PSLF, according to the study published in the Journal of Surgical Education.
'They put everyone in forbearance'
Nonetheless, hearing Leila's story, many others also came forward with their own. @jacqueline.a.harris commented, "I have Mohela; they put everyone in forbearance! I literally could not make a payment." At the same time, @lemmie_beverlymilbilly suggested, "Student loans should be interest-free. It’s the interest that gets people every time."
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