We have studied the degradation in the off-state channel surface leakage current. This shift in the device leakage was found to be driven by a hot carrier mechanism in NMOS devices. The observed subthreshold current increase was studied and its origin was determined to be charging traps. The subsequent recovery of this electrical stress induced leakage current by the application of various gate bias conditions has also been documented and explained in this work. The implications of temperature, channel length and voltage conditions have been characterized