On Friday, the Department of Education quietly took down the online application for loan consolidation and income-driven repayment<\/strong> (IDR) plans, according to a statement on StudentAid.gov. The statement attributes the decision to a federal court injunction, which halted Biden\u2019s Saving on a Valuable Education<\/strong> (SAVE) plan and other IDR programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, legal and student loan experts argue that the court ruling did not require the removal of access to longstanding repayment plans, such as Income-Based Repayment <\/strong>(IBR). \u201cNothing in this court order should affect income-based repayment,\u201d said Mike Pierce, co-founder of the Student Borrower Protection Center, according to Yahoo Finance<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These plans cap monthly payments <\/a>at a percentage of a borrower\u2019s income and offer loan forgiveness after a set number of years. Normally, enrollees must recertify their incomes annually to maintain eligibility, but with the online portal down<\/strong>, it remains unclear how borrowers can comply with this requirement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Experts worry that the removal of the online application may lead to financial instability for borrowers who rely on IDR plans to keep their loan payments affordable. Failure to recertify income on time could result in increased monthly payments or capitalization of interest, significantly raising overall loan costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Currently, borrowers who had enrolled in SAVE before the court injunction have been placed in forbearance until 2025. However, the 4.5 million borrowers<\/strong> in other IDR programs do not have the same extension, raising concerns about missed deadlines and potential penalties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSome of those borrowers have recertification deadlines this month or next month,\u201d said Abby Shafroth<\/strong>, director of the National Consumer Law Center\u2019s Student Loan Borrower Assistance Project, according to Yahoo Finance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With no official guidance from the Department of Education, affected borrowers have turned to online forums for advice, with some suggesting submitting paper applications<\/strong> directly to loan servicers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Borrowers relying on income-driven repayment plans face growing uncertainty after the Trump administration quietly removed the student loan repayment application portal. The decision follows a court ruling but goes beyond its original scope, creating confusion for millions. With recertification deadlines looming, many fear higher payments and financial instability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":102346,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33","no-featured-image-padding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102344"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102347,"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102344\/revisions\/102347"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}