He retired after he got notified of student-loan forgiveness. Then his payments came back.

Donald Knierim is fighting to get his Public Service Loan Forgiveness restored.

Vanessa Valadez for BI Donald Knierim planned his retirement around student-loan forgiveness.

He spent most of his career designing financial data systems for major companies.

At the age of 60, he took a pay cut and moved to the public sector, working for Metra, Chicago's commuter railway.

His primary draw to the job was lower stress, and an added bonus was that it qualified for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which erases student debt for government and nonprofit workers after 10 years.

Knierim had a $62,000 balance remaining on the student loans he took out to send his kids to college.

If all went according to plan, a decade at Metra would wipe that clean.

In November 2025, the now-71-year-old logged on to his Federal Student Aid dashboard.

It read "Congratulations! You've satisfied your obligation, and no additional payments are required for this loan." That tracked — Knierim said he had never missed a payment, always verifying that his payments were counting toward his forgiveness progress.

So he put in his notice and retired.

Knierim retired after thinking his student-loan payments were done.

Vanessa Valadez for BI Months later, he received an update: 15 payments that had previously counted toward forgiveness were changed to "non-qualifying." The notice said his payments were below the amount required under his income-driven repayment plan, but did not specify the proper amount.

That means he has at least another year and a half of payments — about $470 monthly — to achieve PSLF.

"If I have to restore that payment, it's going to put my wife and me in a bad situation," Knierim said.