Help! Received the “You’re eligible to have your student loan(s) discharged” email, but think it was sent in error

Cross-posting this in r/PSLF

On 2/12 of this year my spouse received an email from Dept. of Ed. titled "You're eligible to have your student loan(s) discharged". The email goes on to say that this is in reference to an IDR discharge/forgiveness.

However, we don't know how this is possible. First, she's currently working on PSLF forgiveness, and probably has about ~5 more years/~60 payments to go, maybe a little more than that (we've not certified her employer annually since before the introduction of the SAVE plan, and then the SAVE auto-forbearance, but have since moved to Old IBR last year to get the counts started again).

Her first loan for undergrad was probably taken out in 2000, and she graduated undergrad in 2004. She was in repayment status for several years (with SEVERAL hardship forbearances), but again started making regular payments ~2011. She returned to grad school in 2019, and graduated from grad school in 2023 (loans were in an in-school forbearance during that time).

During the Biden-era one-time count adjustment, she (again) consolidated her loans so that the new grad loans would receive the benefit of her previous PSLF counts (about 24 at that time). She's been in repayment since then, at first with a $0/month SAVE payment, then the SAVE auto-forbearance, and now a very low payment amount under IBR – we file our taxes separately to keep that payment low.

Now out of nowhere we get this email.

First, we do not see how it's possible that she's "reached the necessary number of payments under your income-driven repayment (IDR) plan" (quote from the email)… there's no way that she's made the 20/25 years worth of payments.

Second, our plan was initially to just let sleeping dogs lie and wait to see what happens with this; the email states "if you do not want to receive loan discharge—also known as opting out—you must contact your loan servicer no later than 03/05/2026 to tell them you do not want an IDR discharge". However we just realized that (unless we're mistaken) and IDR discharge (unlike PSLF) is a taxable event (federal, not our state), and so now there seems to be a risk of a large tax bill – her total loan amount is just over six figures.

What should we do? My spouse is worried that if we "poke the bear" and call the servicer to see if there's been some mistake, we run the risk of losing a discharge possibility. On the other had, I suppose it's possible that her monthly payment over the next 5+ years, until PSLF forgiveness, will total less than the amount in tax we will have to pay (I've not done the math… nor have I taken into account that we can start filing taxes jointly again if she gets the discharge).

Any info/advice is appreciated. Wondering if anyone else is in a similar situation.