Like the other commenter said, she's under FERS, not CSRS. Under FERS she pays 4.4% of her salary into a pension. You then get 1% or 1.1% of your "high 3" years of salary in the form of a pension at retirement depending on a couple factors. So for a 30 year career one could expect about a third of their income in the form of a pension in retirement.
You can always walk away and roll your pension contributions into a traditional IRA for no penalty, or pay income taxes on it and take the lump sum. You'll have to do the math at that point in time to see if it's worth it. There's some people that are grandfathered in to getting the same FERS benefits for like 1% of their salary, so it's a no-brainer to leave their contributions and collect when they're eligible if they retire early. For those of us that pay in 4.4%, it's usually better to take the contributions and invest them yourself if you're gonna retire early.
I doubt that she qualifies for loan forgiveness. That program is intended for public service positions like education, firefighters, non-profits, etc. Not just any federal employee.