There is no general student-loan write-off in Canada. What exists is narrower and specific: reduced payments through the Repayment Assistance Plan, forgiveness for listed occupations working in small or rural communities, and cancellation for a severe permanent disability. Which route fits, what each one requires, and how to apply through the National Student Loans Service Centre.
Applies in: across Canada
Canada has no general student-loan write-off. Anyone promising one is selling something else. What the federal government does offer is three specific routes, each with its own test, its own application, and its own cycle. This guide walks through the process only: which route fits your situation, what the federal pages require, and where to apply. It gives no advice on whether to borrow, how much to borrow, or whether a particular job or move is worth it for the forgiveness on offer.
Start with the split that decides everything else. Most borrowers hold a Canada Student Loan with a federal part and a provincial or territorial part, administered together through the National Student Loans Service Centre (NSLSC). The federal routes in this guide — the Repayment Assistance Plan, Canada Student Loan Forgiveness, and the disability routes — apply to the federal part only. The provincial or territorial part follows that jurisdiction's rules, and the federal pages repeat the warning in both places: thresholds may be different for the provincial part, and your province or territory may offer its own forgiveness. Private student loans, bank lines of credit, and loans that were converted to a line of credit sit outside all of these programs. Before you apply anywhere, open your NSLSC account and confirm which parts you hold and what balance sits on each. A forgiveness figure that looks generous against the total balance can be modest against the federal part alone.
The Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP) is the route for a borrower in repayment whose income cannot carry the standard payment. Depending on income, you may qualify for reduced payments or no payments at all for a six-month period. You can apply as soon as you start to repay your student loans and at any time while you are in repayment, and you must re-apply every six months to stay eligible. The application goes through your NSLSC account.
Eligibility has three parts, and all three must hold. You live in Canada, with two stated exceptions for a reservist or the spouse of a reservist deployed abroad, and for an international internship of a year or less. Your loans are in repayment, meaning at least six months have passed since you graduated or left school. And you are up to date on your loan payments. If the loan is behind, the application is not the first step; contacting the NSLSC to discuss getting current is.
The income test uses monthly gross family income, and the thresholds rise with family size. The figures below are the federal thresholds on the RAP page as checked on October 29, 2026; the page was last modified July 31, 2026, and thresholds are indexed over time, so re-check the page before you rely on a figure at the edge.
| Family size | Monthly gross family income threshold |
|---|---|
| 1 | $3,866 |
| 2 | $4,535 |
| 3 | $5,556 |
| 4 | $6,412 |
| 5 | $7,170 |
| 6 | $7,854 |
| 7 or more | $8,483 |
Below the threshold for your family size, you may not need to make payments for the six-month period. Above it, you may still qualify for a reduced monthly payment, set from your family income and family size. The federal page does not publish a payment formula, and this guide does not invent one; the assessed payment is the answer, and it arrives through the NSLSC application.
If you are approved, the Government of Canada pays any interest owing on the federal part of your loan that your reduced payment does not cover. After 60 months of RAP, or 10 years after you finish school, it starts to pay down both the principal and any remaining interest. As long as you stay eligible, the balance continues to be paid down until it is paid in full. The maximum time a borrower can be in repayment after leaving school is 15 years in most cases, and 10 years for persons with a disability. One consequence deserves attention before you lean on the principal stage: once the government has paid towards your principal while you are on RAP, you cannot receive more student grants or loans until you have paid your unpaid loans back. That rule does not apply to RAP-D, covered next.
Borrowers with loans from Prince Edward Island must also apply for repayment assistance with the province. Borrowers from other provinces should still ask about the provincial part, because a federal approval does not settle it.
If you have a disability, the Repayment Assistance Plan for Borrowers with Disabilities (RAP-D) may lower your payments for six months, and you can submit disability-related expenses that may help lower costs further. You may even qualify for no payments at all. Eligibility mirrors RAP — living in Canada with the same exceptions, loans in repayment, up to date on payments — plus falling within the income thresholds and having a disability recognized by the Canada Student Financial Assistance Program. If you are on RAP-D, the government pays down both the principal and any interest your reduced payment does not cover, which is earlier and broader help than the standard RAP principal stage. To stay on RAP-D, reapply every six months. If your disability is not permanent, you may also need to confirm the status of your disability. Apply through the regular RAP application in your NSLSC account; if it is your first time applying for RAP-D and you have not received certain disability grants before, you will need to complete a Verification of Disability form.
The Severe Permanent Disability Benefit sits apart from RAP-D. It can cancel the debt of a borrower with a severe permanent disability who is unable to repay. A severe permanent disability, on the federal definition, prevents participation in substantially gainful employment and will remain with the borrower for life. Medical adjudicators determine eligibility from the application and supporting documentation, and receipt is not automatic or guaranteed. Once the benefit has been received, the borrower is not eligible for any additional Canada Student Grants or Loans. One application can cover both Canada Student Loans and provincial loans from British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, or Saskatchewan; borrowers with loans from another province or territory need to contact that jurisdiction's student aid office as well. For student loans to be considered for cancellation in Ontario, the borrower must live in Canada, and Ontario determines eligibility. Applications go by mail to the Canada Student Financial Assistance Program, and the NSLSC can forward a call to the program for questions. Because the test is medical and adjudicated, do not assume the outcome from a diagnosis alone; the application and its medical report are what get decided.
Canada Student Loan Forgiveness reduces the federal part of the loan for each year a borrower works in an eligible occupation in an eligible community. You can apply while you are in repayment, while you are in study, or during the six-month non-repayment period after leaving school. The test has five parts: an eligible occupation, an eligible community, a full year of employment in that occupation, at least 400 hours of in-person service, and a student loan in good standing, meaning up to date on payments.
The occupation list, as published on the federal page, covers 17 occupations. Family doctors and family medicine residents, licensed practical nurses, nurse practitioners, registered nurses, registered psychiatric nurses, and registered practical nurses have been eligible since the program began. Ten more were added effective December 31, 2025: dentists, dental hygienists, early childhood educators, midwives, personal support workers, pharmacists, physiotherapists, psychologists, social workers, and teachers. You need the licence your occupation requires, approved by the authority in the community where you work, with exceptions listed on the first page of the application form for family medicine residents, personal support workers, physiotherapists, and early childhood educators in some provinces and territories.
An eligible community, since November 6, 2024, is a rural area or a population centre with no more than 30,000 people living in it. The previous definition — outside metropolitan areas, outside areas with an urban core of 50,000 or more, and outside provincial capitals — remains in place until after the 2026 census for doctors and nurses only. The federal page provides a postal code lookup, and warns that it is being updated and may not be accurate. If you previously received the benefit while working in a community that is no longer eligible, you may still qualify. Confirm with the NSLSC before making an employment decision on the strength of a community's status.
The service year is 12 consecutive months of employment in the eligible occupation, except 10 consecutive months for early childhood educators, psychologists, social workers, and teachers who worked in a school, and except residents in family medicine, for whom the full-year requirement does not apply in the form stated on the page. Short leave of less than one month during the year does not by itself end eligibility, provided the 400 hours of in-person service are still completed. Longer leave needs to be covered by one of the listed benefits — maternity, parental, sickness, compassionate care, or family caregiver benefits — or by leave of a similar type that was unpaid or covered by provincial or private insurance, alongside the other criteria. You can work in more than one eligible community during the year, and for more than one employer, as long as the other requirements are met.
The amount depends on the occupation group and rises each year, up to five years. Forgiveness applies to the principal balance after the end of the year of service, and you keep making your payments in the meantime. The five years do not have to be consecutive: if you hold a Canada Student Loan balance at the end of each year of service in an eligible community, you can qualify for forgiveness for five years. Once you have completed a year of service, you have 90 days to apply, and to remain eligible you must re-apply every year. Apply online through your NSLSC account, logging in through My Service Canada Account, or by mail with the application form and the employment attestation form to the NSLSC address on the federal page. Forgiveness does not apply to loans converted to a line of credit, private loans, or Ontario Medical Resident Loans.
None of the federal routes settles the provincial or territorial part of a loan on its own. Contact your province or territory for its repayment assistance and any forgiveness it offers, and check whether its thresholds, application, and cycle differ from the federal ones. That check is part of the application, not an afterthought, because a borrower can be approved federally and still face the full provincial payment, or the reverse.
The order that wastes the least time is short. Confirm the federal and provincial split in your NSLSC account. Match yourself to one route and read that route's test on the federal page, not on a summary. If the route is repayment assistance, apply through the NSLSC account while the loan is up to date, and diary the six-month reapplication. If the route is forgiveness for service, confirm the community with the NSLSC before relying on it, keep a record of hours and employment dates, and apply within 90 days of completing the year. If the route is disability-related, start with RAP-D unless the severe permanent test is the one that fits, and get the medical documentation in hand before applying. In every case, keep making payments until an approval changes the amount; an application is not a payment holiday.
No payment formula for repayment assistance is stated in this guide, because no opened federal page publishes one; the assessed payment comes from the NSLSC application. No processing time for any application is stated, because none was verified on an official page at writing time. No provincial forgiveness amount is stated, because provincial programs were not opened and verified at writing time; the guide directs borrowers to the province or territory instead. The income thresholds in the table above are the federal figures on the RAP page as checked on October 29, 2026, and the page notes that thresholds may differ for the provincial part. Re-check the federal pages before acting on a figure at the edge of a threshold, and re-check the forgiveness page if the occupation list or the community definition changes after the 2026 census. This guide was written from the federal pages listed below, checked on October 29, 2026. The RAP page was last modified July 31, 2026, and the loan forgiveness page June 3, 2026.
| Early childhood educators, dental hygienists, personal support workers | $15,000 over five years — $2,000, $2,500, $3,000, $3,500, $4,000 |
|---|---|
| Nurse practitioners, registered nurses, practical nurses, psychiatric nurses, midwives, teachers, social workers, physiotherapists | $30,000 over five years — $4,000, $5,000, $6,000, $7,000, $8,000 |
| Family doctors and family medicine residents, dentists, psychologists, pharmacists | $60,000 over five years — $8,000, $10,000, $12,000, $14,000, $16,000 |
Forgiveness applies to the principal balance of the federal part of the loan, after the end of each year of service. The five years of service do not have to be consecutive.
Yes, because the threshold is the point below which you may make no payments at all, not the edge of the program. The federal page says that if you earn more than the thresholds, you may still qualify for reduced monthly payments, with the payment set from your family income and family size. Apply through your NSLSC account and let the assessment decide, rather than ruling yourself out on a guess. Two cautions belong with that advice. The thresholds may be different for the provincial part of your loan, so a federal decision does not settle the provincial side, and borrowers with loans from Prince Edward Island must also apply for repayment assistance with the province. If your income changes during the six-month period, the next application is the moment the new figure is assessed, which is why the reapply cycle matters even when the first answer is a reduced payment rather than no payment.
Not on the eligibility test as the federal page states it. You may qualify only if your loans are in repayment and you are up to date on your loan payments, alongside living in Canada and being at least six months past leaving school. Falling behind does not make the program disappear, but it does mean the first step is a conversation with the National Student Loans Service Centre about getting the loan current, not an application that will be assessed on its face. Contact the NSLSC before the arrears grow, and do not assume that a missed payment automatically ends every option. The page directs borrowers to contact the NSLSC to discuss their options, and that discussion is the route for a loan that is no longer up to date. Keep a record of who you spoke with and what was agreed, because the up-to-date requirement will be checked again when you do apply.
No. Canada Student Loan Forgiveness can only be applied to the outstanding part of your federal student loan, and the federal page states plainly that it does not apply to the provincial or territorial part. Your province or territory may also offer loan forgiveness, and the federal page tells borrowers to contact their province or territory for that information, but the two are separate programs with separate applications and separate decisions. The same boundary applies to the other exclusions on the forgiveness page: loans that have been converted to a line of credit, private loans, and Ontario Medical Resident Loans are not covered. If most of your balance sits on the provincial side, the federal forgiveness amount will look smaller than expected, so work out the split between the federal and provincial parts in your NSLSC account before you count on a figure.
Start with the definition, then confirm before you make an employment decision. Since November 6, 2024, an eligible community is a rural area or a population centre with no more than 30,000 people living in it, although the previous definition remains in place until after the 2026 census for doctors and nurses only. The federal page offers a postal code lookup, but it warns that the lookup tool is currently being updated with the latest postal codes and may not be accurate. That warning is the reason the page also says confirmation of eligibility is determined once you have applied, and tells borrowers with questions to contact the NSLSC before making any employment-related decisions. A town that feels small can sit inside a larger population centre, and a workplace on the edge of a larger centre can fall outside it, so do not rely on the town's own population figure alone.
One lowers payments while you keep repaying, and the other can cancel the debt. The Repayment Assistance Plan for Borrowers with Disabilities is for borrowers with a disability recognized by the Canada Student Financial Assistance Program. It can lower payments for six months, takes disability-related expenses into account, and the government pays down principal and remaining interest that the reduced payment does not cover. You reapply every six months, and if your disability is not permanent you may need to confirm its status. The Severe Permanent Disability Benefit is narrower. It applies where a severe permanent disability prevents participation in substantially gainful employment and will remain for life. Medical adjudicators decide on the application and supporting documents, receipt is not automatic, and once you have received it you are not eligible for additional Canada Student Grants or Loans. RAP-D is the route to try first unless the disability meets the severe permanent test, in which case the benefit page is the right starting point.
You do not need to make payments on existing student loans if you return to school, but returning carries a consequence once the government has started paying down your principal under repayment assistance. The federal page states that once the federal government has paid towards your principal payment while you are on RAP, you cannot receive more student grants or loans, and you will need to pay your unpaid loans back before you can apply for more. That consequence does not apply if you are on RAP-D. In practice, the sequence matters. If you are considering further study and you are already on RAP, ask the NSLSC how a return to school would affect your file before you enrol, and confirm your enrolment through the usual process so the loan stays in its payment-free state while you study. A decision made after enrolment is harder to unwind than the same question asked beforehand.