Well, they didn’t win. Mr. Shafer recently received official word that seven years of payments that he was told would not count toward his loan forgiveness — he needed 10 years — would count after all. Moreover, the $1.3 trillion spending plan that Congress passed last week contains a $350 million forgiveness fix-it fund to help some others like him.

While both developments are overwhelmingly positive, very little about the public service loan forgiveness plan is straightforward. We’re still months away from knowing the details of how the $350 million fund will work. And if you think you’re repaying your debt correctly under the many terms of the program, there’s a decent chance you’re not.

The federal loan program allows people working full time for qualified employers (generally government workers and those who work for nonprofits) to apply for tax-free federal student loan forgiveness after 10 years of on-time payments. There are a couple of more catches, though: You have to be in the right kind of loan (a so-called direct loan from the government) and making the right kind of payment (generally an income-based or income-driven one of some sort). I explained this in more detail in a column last year (“Panicked Borrowers, and the Education Department’s Unsettling Silence”), which contains many links to more resources and instructions.

About a week after my column on Mr. Shafer appeared, he heard from an Education Department staff member who offered to review his file in more detail. After several exchanges, he received official notice this month that he now has 97 months of credit toward the 120 months he would need for forgiveness. That’s 84 more than he had previously.

Around the same time, the loan problem was being taken up by others in Washington. Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, a proponent of loan forgiveness for public service workers going back to her days as a Harvard Law School professor, told me last week that she began asking around after reading about Mr. Shafer. The program had begun in 2007, so by last fall at least some people should have been close to having their debt wiped away.