If you're a government or nonprofit worker who wants student-loan forgiveness, you have 5 months left to use a waiver that'll bring you closer to that relief

Public servants like teachers, firefighters, military, and nonprofit workers with student debt have just under five months to take advantage of a Waiver that could bring them closer to loan forgiveness.

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which forgives student debt for public servants after ten years of payments, was reformed in October.

The waivers allow borrowers to count payments from any federal-loan programs or repayment plans toward loan forgiveness through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

The waiver is intended to bring 550,000 borrowers closer to student loan forgiveness. Making it easier for service members to get credit for the program was one of the changes made to the program.

The system has not delivered on that promise to date, but that is about to change for many borrowers who have served their communities and their country.

While 9 million public servants are eligible for student loan forgiveness, only 2% of them have actually gotten their debt wiped out, and less than 15% of the 9 million borrowers have filed paperwork to track their progress.

If you're a public servant with student debt, here's what you need to do in order to take advantage of the waiver.

1. First confirm that you qualify for PSLF by ensuring you are employed at a US federal, state, local, or tribal government or nonprofit and you are working full-time.
2. Submit this form on or before October 31 to have prior ineligible payments, like those made under the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program, count toward loan forgiveness if you currently have a federal direct loan.
3. If your loans are not direct loans (for example, you may have student loans under a number of different loan companies), you need to consolidate them into a federal direct loan. Once you do so, you may submit the PSLF form.

You should be notified by the Education Department if you are eligible. According to Insider, married couples who combine their loans into joint consolidation loans are not eligible for the program because they can't separate their loans into federal loans.

The Education Department did not immediately respond to the request for comment.