This was several years ago. Rules changed recently to be a lot more lenient because only 7000 people had managed to get relief previously.

https://www.nlc.org/article/2022/08/08/the-limited-pslf-waiver-a-game-changer-for-city-employees/#:~:text=Crucially%2C%20there%20is%20no%20income,fully%20forgiven%2C%20tax%2Dfree.

Maybe she was incorrectly kicked off and could have fought it.

But by that point she was so sick of paying federal loans at the insane rate when she could refinance to private at 2% interest that she just did that.

Yeah, under the new guidelines and knowing student loan forgiveness was coming, maybe thing should have been different. In 2019, she just got slapped in the face that after working toward this for almost a decade and accruing interest at the high Federal rate she wasn't going to get it and just gave up.