For years, borrowers and advocates have complained that student-loan companies hired by the government make it unnecessarily difficult for borrowers to repay their loans.

Now one company has agreed to settle claims it did just that.

Conduent Education Services, which has at times been known as ACS Education Services and Xerox Education Services, will pay $9 million to settle claims the company misled borrowers. The deal ends an investigation into the company by New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, and Maria Vullo, the state’s superintendent for financial services.

As part of the deal, Conduent has agreed to stop servicing most types of federal student loans and private loans for at least five years.

The company began winding down it’s federal servicing business in 2013 and exited it completely in October of last year.

“ As part of the deal, Conduent has agreed to stop servicing most types of federal s and private loans for at least five years. ”

The settlement likely won’t provide much relief — most of the borrowers eligible to receive funds from the deal will get between $100 and $450 — but the agreement has implications beyond the financial payout, advocates say.

For one, it holds a company that has historically been a major player in the management of the federal student-loan program accountable for misdeeds it’s been accused of for years. The borrowers eligible for relief are up to the discretion of James’ and Vullo’s offices.

“The enforcement action against ACS is critical because it demonstrates what so many student-loan borrowers, including public servants, are facing when they try to repay their debt,” said Seth Frotman, the executive director of the Borrower Protection Center, an advocacy group. “This action demonstrates how countless student-loan borrowers are denied the protections and the benefits that would help alleviate that burden.”

Borrowers who needed help got bad advice instead

The agreement includes essentially a hit list of many of the most common concerns advocates have about the way student-loan companies treat borrowers.

Federal student-loan borrowers have many options they can use to make their student-loan payments manageable, including payment plans — known as income-driven repayment — that allow them to repay their loans as a percentage of income.

But when borrowers who were struggling to pay their loans called ACS prior to 2014, they may not have gotten the best advice, investigators say. ACS instructed its representatives to tell borrowers early on in the conversation about forbearance, which pauses payments but where interest continues to accrue. ACS representatives only mentioned income driven repayment as a last resort, according to claims in the settlement.

Public servants who were eligible for debt forgiveness didn’t get it

The company also allegedly misled borrowers about their eligibility for Public Service Loan Forgiveness, a program that allows borrowers who work in public service and pay their federal loans for at least 10 years to have their debts forgiven.

When service members and other borrowers with loans whose work may have qualified them for PSLF called ACS to inquire about their eligibility, representatives were instructed to tell them they weren’t eligible for the program, even though all they had to do was consolidate their debt to qualify, according to the deal.

“ ACS allegedly misled borrowers about their eligibility for Public Service Loan Forgiveness, a program that allows borrowers who work in public service and pay their federal loans for at least 10 years to have their debts forgiven. ”

The New York AG and the Superintendent of Financial Services also alleged ACS misallocated payments submitted by borrowers, overstated the amount borrowers who were behind on their loans had to pay to become current and didn’t process requests from borrowers to consolidate their loans in a timely fashion, delaying their ability to take advantage of PSLF and other programs by years in some cases, among other claims.

Sean Collins, a Conduent spokesman, said in a statement, the investigation focused on past behavior beginning in the 1990s.

“The company, which has neither admitted nor denied liability, is pleased to put these legacy issues behind it,” the statement reads.

A government contractor under little scrutiny?

For years ACS played a relatively prominent role in the federal government’s student-loan program, including at one point working as the only company servicing a certain type of federal loan.

New York’s settlement raises questions about how closely the Department of Education’s Office of Federal Student Aid was monitoring one of its contractors to ensure the company wasn’t mistreating borrowers, said Colleen Campbell, the associate director for postsecondary education at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank.

“ New York’s settlement raises questions about how closely the Department of Education’s Office of Federal Student Aid was monitoring one of its contractors to ensure the company wasn’t mistreating borrowers. ” — —Colleen Campbell, the associate director for postsecondary education at the Center for American Progress

“Folks have known they’ve been an issue for a really long time, but they just weren’t held accountable,” Campbell, said of ACS. The settlement “opens up opportunities for lawmakers and for advocates to say FSA you need to show us that you’re doing your due diligence because you were not doing it in the past.”

The deal also showcases the power states have to crack down on student-loan companies as the federal government’s oversight of these companies has grown increasingly lax, advocates say. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau had opened up an inquiry into ACS’s behavior, according to a 2015 report from BuzzFeed, but the status of that inquiry remains unclear.

But despite the lack of action from the CFPB and efforts by the Trump administration to shield student-loan companies from state consumer protection laws, New York was able to hold ACS accountable — an important feat, according to Frotman, the former student-loan ombudsman at the CFPB.

The Department of Education and the CFPB didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

“It sends a signal,” Frotman said. “This is the New York Attorney General, the New York Department of Financial Services standing together and standing up for New York borrowers.”