The Federal Trade Commission has now sent more than $49 million in refunds to people who say University of Phoenix lured them in with false claims about job placement and corporate partnerships, and the agency’s newest round of payments is reaching those who missed out the first time. The FTC is depositing Zelle payments directly into bank accounts for people who never cashed an earlier refund check or accepted a PayPal payment, closing a gap left by three previous rounds of payouts. For older students who spent savings, took out loans, or used military benefits to finish a degree at the for-profit school, the refund program — and a separate loan-forgiveness track running alongside it — means money tied to the case can still show up years after it first settled.
Three Rounds of Payments Since a Record 2019 Settlement
The refunds trace back to a record $191 million settlement the FTC reached with University of Phoenix and its parent, Apollo Education Group, in December 2019, resolving charges that the school ran ad campaigns falsely claiming partnerships with companies including Microsoft, Twitter, Adobe and Yahoo to create job opportunities for its students. Under that order, the school paid $50 million to the FTC for consumer redress and canceled $141 million in debts owed directly by students the agency said were harmed by the ads. The FTC sent the first round of payments in March 2021, totaling more than $45.6 million to eligible students, then followed with an additional $3.6 million to people who had already cashed that first payment. Two more rounds went out in July 2023 and September 2025, and the FTC’s live case page now puts the cumulative total sent at more than $49 million.
Zelle Payments Now Target Uncashed Checks and Refused PayPal Transfers
Refund checks from the earlier rounds carried a limited window to be cashed, and PayPal payments had to be accepted within a set period too, conditions that caused some eligible students to miss their payment entirely. The FTC’s newest step is aimed squarely at that group: anyone who qualified for a refund but let a check lapse uncashed, or never accepted a PayPal payment sent to them, is now getting the money deposited directly into a bank account through Zelle, with a note referencing the settlement attached to the deposit. The agency has been explicit that it never asks refund recipients to pay money, hand over a bank password, or click a link to claim the payment — a distinction worth remembering given how often scammers impersonate refund programs like this one to target the same older, deceived-student population the FTC is trying to repay.
Eligibility for the underlying refunds required students to have first enrolled in a bachelor’s, master’s or associate’s degree program at University of Phoenix between October 2012 and December 2016 and to have paid more than $5,000 out of pocket, in loans, or in military benefits, without already receiving debt cancellation under the 2019 order. Anyone unsure whether they qualified, or who believes they were owed a payment that never arrived, can contact the refund administrator directly rather than respond to an unsolicited call or text referencing the case.
A Separate $37 Million in Loan Forgiveness Tied to the Same Case
Apart from the cash refunds, the U.S. Department of Education announced in September 2023 that it would forgive nearly $37 million in federal loans for more than 1,200 borrowers deceived by University of Phoenix’s job-placement claims, building directly on the FTC’s 2019 case. That loan-forgiveness track runs through the Department’s borrower defense program and operates independently of the FTC’s settlement fund — receiving a refund check does not disqualify a borrower from also pursuing loan forgiveness, and vice versa. The Department says it continues to process new and existing borrower defense applications tied to University of Phoenix and expects to approve more as it works through the backlog.
Borrowers who attended University of Phoenix and have not yet filed a borrower defense claim can start one through the Department of Education’s application portal, and those who already applied can check their status under “Manage My Applications” on the same site. For grandparents who co-signed loans so an adult child or grandchild could attend, or retirees who tapped savings expecting the school’s marketing promises to pay off, both the FTC’s refund program and the Department of Education’s forgiveness track remain open years after the original case closed, and neither one charges a fee to apply.
Opt-In Programs and the Households That Skip Them
Both tracks in this case move money toward people an agency had already identified by name. The benefit programs older households live alongside run in reverse: nothing happens until an application is filed, which is why Extra Help with Part D drug costs, SNAP for people aged 60 and over, and VA Aid and Attendance go unused by large numbers of the people they were written for. The eligibility is real; the enrollment is the part that is missing…