This story is part of CT Mirror Explains, an ongoing effort to distill our wide-ranging reporting into a "what you need to know" format and provide practical information to our readers.
Editor’s Note: This article is part of CT Mirror’s Spanish-language news coverage developed in partnership with Identidad Latina Multimedia.
Connecticut’s Student Loan Reimbursement Program will offer qualifying residents up to $5,000 a year for up to four years to help them pay off their loans.
Applications for the $6 million program open on Jan. 1, 2025, and the money will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis. Applicants must meet a slew of qualifications to be eligible, including a community service requirement.
Here’s what to know about the program.
What does the Student Loan Reimbursement Program offer?
The program will reimburse eligible individuals for up to $5,000 of the student loan payments they made in the prior year.
For example, if a person’s student loan payments were $100 a month in 2024, they can be reimbursed for $1,200. But if a person paid $500 a month in student loans in 2024, they would receive reimbursement for $5,000 of the $6,000 they spent.
Residents can receive the reimbursement annually for up to four years, resulting in a maximum payment of $20,000. However, reimbursement in future years is contingent on the program remaining funded.
Participants will have to apply for the reimbursement each year, and the application will remain open until the money is depleted, said Noele Kidney, public information officer at the Office of Higher Education.
What are its eligibility requirements?
To be eligible, a person must be a current Connecticut resident who has lived in the state for at least five years, has outstanding student loan debt, and has made payments on qualifying loans — which include federal direct loans, federal direct PLUS loans, federal Perkins loans and CHESLA loans — in 2024.
They must hold a degree from a public or private college or university in Connecticut or have earned an occupational/professional license or certificate at a Connecticut career school.
Individuals who left school without graduating are also eligible if they were granted a “hardship waiver” from OHE due to personal or family medical or financial circumstances that prevented them from finishing their education.
An applicant’s adjusted gross income in 2023 must have been no more than $125,000 if single or $175,000 if married.
How does the volunteering requirement work?
To qualify, individuals must have spent at least 50 hours volunteering beginning Jan. 1, 2024. Applicants can finish the community service requirement in early 2025 and apply upon hitting 50 hours, Kidney said.
Those volunteer hours can be attained through military service, serving in municipal government, or volunteering with a Connecticut nonprofit registered with the Department of Consumer Protection (including serving on its board of directors).
Applicants must show notarized proof of their volunteer work via a form that will be available on the SLRP site once an application is in progress.
I’m eligible. How can I apply?
Beginning Jan. 1, applications will be available within the Office of Higher Education’s CT SCHOLARS portal, which is used for student financial aid processing.
In that portal, students can create an account, complete an application and upload the required documentation — a full list of which can be found here.
What other student loan forgiveness is available in Connecticut?
The federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness program has been in place for years to give major relief to those who work in the public sector.
Those workers can have the remainder of their debt erased — no matter the amount — if they have made payments for 10 years.
Borrowers can see if their employer qualifies here, and can apply for relief here.
Additionally, your employer may provide student loan assistance: In 2019, Gov. Ned Lamont signed a measure establishing a tax credit for employers in Connecticut who assist with the payment of their employees’ student loans.
Employers can receive a credit equaling 50% of the payments made to an eligible employee’s loan, up to a maximum credit of $2,625 per employee per year.
Qualified employees must be full-time workers with eligible education loans who live in Connecticut and earned their first bachelor’s degree in the immediately preceding five-year period.
Full employer and employee eligibility requirements can be found here.
