Income-driven repayment

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Income-based repayment or income-driven-repayment (IDR) is a student loan repayment program in the United States that regulates the amount that one needs to pay each month based on one's current income and family size.

Contents

The phrase is an umbrella term for four specific repayment plans that are available within the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program (FDLP, FDSLP, and Direct Loan) and the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFEL). The four plans are:

Mechanics

Payments under the IBR Plan are 10% or 15% of discretionary income but never exceed the 10-year standard repayment amount.

Whether a borrower pays 10% or 15% of discretionary income depends on when the borrower first started borrowing student loans.

Payments under the PAYE Plan are 10% of discretionary income but will never be more than the 10-year standard repayment amount.

Payments under the (abolished) REPAYE Plan were also 10% of discretionary income; however, unlike IBR and PAYE, payments for high-income borrowers may have been higher than the 10-year standard repayment amount. Also, unlike IBR and PAYE, if required monthly payments did not cover the accruing interest, 50% of the unpaid interest was forgiven, thereby reducing negative amortization.

Payments under the ICR Plan are the lesser of 20% of discretionary income or a 12-year standard repayment amount adjusted based on the borrower's income.

Under the SAVE plan, payments are lower and forgiveness is easier: [1] [3]

Eligibility

Eligibility requirements for the income-driven repayment plans depend on which plan the borrower chooses and when the student borrowed.

Eligible loans

Eligible loans for the ICR Plan are all loans made under the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program except Parent PLUS Loans. However, if a Parent PLUS Loan is consolidated into a Direct Consolidation Loan, then the Direct Consolidation Loan may be repaid under the ICR Plan. [2]

Eligible loans for the IBR Plan are all loans made under the Ford Program and Federal Family Education Loan Program except for Parent PLUS Loans. Unlike ICR, Parent PLUS Loans cannot be consolidated into a consolidation loan to qualify. [2]

Eligible loans for the PAYE Plan are all loans made under the Ford Program except for Parent PLUS Loans. Unlike ICR, Parent PLUS Loans cannot be consolidated into a consolidation loan to qualify. [2]

Borrowers with Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program loans and Federal Perkins Loan Program loans may become eligible for the ICR, Pay As You Earn, and Revised Pay As You Earn plans by consolidating them into a Direct Consolidation Loan. [2]

Different terms and conditions

The IBR and PAYE Plans require that borrowers demonstrate a "need" to make income-driven payments. This debt-to-income test checks to see whether the borrower would see a payment amount reduction under the IBR or PAYE Plan relative to the 10-year standard repayment plan. [2]

The IBR Plan has different terms and conditions depending on when the student borrowed. If the borrower is a "new borrower" on or after July 1, 2014, then the borrower will have payments that are generally 10% of discretionary income, and forgiveness is provided for after 20 years of qualifying payment. [2] If a borrower is not a new borrower on or after July 1, 2014, then payments will generally be 15% of discretionary income, and forgiveness is provided for after 25 years of qualifying repayment. [2]

Similar to the definition of "new borrower" for Pay As You Earn, a new borrower for the IBR Plan is one who, when receiving a federal student loan on or after July 1, 2014, the borrower did not have an outstanding balance on another federal student loan.

Determining eligibility

Utilizing the repayment estimator online, a borrower may estimate their other monthly payments under all repayment plans, including IBR. However, repayment estimator can only estimate eligibility. To determine that they are eligible, the borrower must contact their loan servicer. The National Student Loan Data System lets a borrower know who is the servicer of their loan.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program provides for the forgiveness of certain types of federal student loans after 10 years of qualifying employment and payments. [4] The IBR plan can qualify for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program. [4] To receive Public Service Loan Forgiveness, the borrower must repay their loans under one of the "income-driven repayment plans," including IBR. [4]

Applying for an income-driven repayment plan

To apply for an income-driven repayment plan, a borrower needs to submit the Income-Driven Repayment Plan Request and provide information about family size and income. [2]

Tax information, as well as the application itself, and certification of family size, may be provided electronically through StudentLoans.gov. [2] If completing the application electronically, a borrower may transfer tax information into the application directly from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). [2]

According to the application, borrowers may also self-certify if they currently have no income, thus avoiding needing to try and document that they have no income. [2]

History

Income-contingent repayment of student loans has been formally proposed in the United States, in various forms, since 1971. The concept has been championed by politicians from both the right and the left. [5]

On June 9, 2014, President Obama announced that the Department of Education would modify the PAYE Plan so that it is available to all borrowers, regardless of when they borrowed. [6] The new repayment plan, Revised Pay As You Earn, launched on December 17, 2015. [7]

The U.S. Department of Education Office of Inspector General recently calculated that the portion of total Direct Loan volume being repaid through IDR plans has increased 625 percent from the FY 2011 loan cohort ($7.1 billion) to the FY 2015 loan cohort ($51.5 billion). For IDR plans, the Federal government is expected to lend more money than borrowers repay. From the FY 2011 through FY 2015 loan cohorts, the total positive subsidy cost (net cash outflow) for student loans being repaid through IDR plans has increased 748%, from $1.4 billion to $11.5 billion. [8]

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Student loan</span> Type of loan for educational expenses

A student loan is a type of loan designed to help students pay for post-secondary education and the associated fees, such as tuition, books and supplies, and living expenses. It may differ from other types of loans in the fact that the interest rate may be substantially lower and the repayment schedule may be deferred while the student is still in school. It also differs in many countries in the strict laws regulating renegotiating and bankruptcy. This article highlights the differences of the student loan system in several major countries.

The Student Loans Company (SLC) is an executive non-departmental public body company in the United Kingdom that provides student loans. It is owned by the UK Government's Department for Education (85%), the Scottish Government (5%), the Welsh Government (5%) and the Northern Ireland Executive (5%). The SLC is funded entirely by the UK government and the devolved administrations. It is responsible for both providing loans to students, and collecting loan repayments alongside HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). The SLC's head office is in Glasgow, with other offices in Darlington and Llandudno.

A Federal Perkins Loan, also referred to as a Perkins Loan, was a need-based student loan offered by U.S. Department of Education from 1958 until 2017. Created as part of the Federal Direct Student Loan Program, the Perkins Loan served to assist American college students fund their post-secondary education. The program was named after Carl D. Perkins, a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Kentucky.

A Stafford Loan was a student loan offered from the United States Department of Education to eligible students enrolled in accredited American institutions of higher education to help finance their education. The terms of the loans are described in Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965, which guarantees repayment to the lender if a student defaults. As of July 1, 2010, Stafford Loans are no longer being offered, having been replaced with the William D. Ford Federal Direct Student Loan Program.

A PLUS Loan is a student loan, which is part of the Federal Direct Student Loan Program, offered to parents of students enrolled at least half time, or graduate and professional students, at participating and eligible post-secondary institutions. The original, now obsolete, meaning of the acronym was "Parent Loan for Undergraduate Students".

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Federal Student Aid (FSA), an office of the U.S. Department of Education, is the largest provider of student financial aid in the United States. Federal Student Aid provides student financial assistance in the form of grants, loans, and work-study funds. FSA is a Performance-Based Organization, and was the first PBO to be established in the US government.

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The Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program is a United States government program that was created under the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007 signed into law by President George W. Bush to provide indebted professionals a way out of their federal student loan debt burden by working full-time in public service.

Pay As You Earn (PAYE) is a federal student loan relief program signed into law on December 21, 2012, by President Barack Obama. It is one of four income-driven repayment plans.

Navient Corporation is an American student loan servicer based in Wilmington, Delaware. Managing nearly $300 billion in student loans for more than 12 million debtors, the company was formed in 2014 by the split of Sallie Mae into two distinct entities: Sallie Mae Bank and Navient. Navient employs 6,000 people at offices across the U.S. As of 2018, Navient services 25% of student loans in the United States.

Student loans in South Korea, are student loans provided to South Korea's students that are managed by the Korea Student Aid Foundation (KOSAF) which was established in May 2009. According to the governmental philosophy that Korea's future depends on talent development and no student should quit studying due to financial reasons, they help students grow into talents that serve the nation and society as members of Korea. Through the management of Korea's national scholarship programs, student loan programs, and talent development programs, KOSAF offers customized student aid services and student loan program is one of their major tasks.

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References

  1. 1 2 "FACT SHEET: The Biden-Harris Administration Launches the SAVE Plan, the Most Affordable Student Loan Repayment Plan Ever to Lower Monthly Payments for Millions of Borrowers". August 22, 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 "Income-Driven Repayment Plans". Federal Student Aid. Retrieved July 25, 2021.
  3. Danielle Douglas-Gabriel (January 19, 2024). "What to know about Biden's student loan income-driven repayment plan". The Washington Post .
  4. 1 2 3 "Public Service Loan Forgiveness | Federal Student Aid". Studentaid.gov. Retrieved May 19, 2015.
  5. Shireman, Robert (April 27, 2017). "Learn Now, Pay Later: A History of Income-Contingent Student Loans in the United States". The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 671: 184–201. doi:10.1177/0002716217701673. S2CID   152024142.
  6. "Presidential Memorandum - Federal Student Loan Repayments | The White House". whitehouse.gov . June 9, 2014. Retrieved May 19, 2015 via National Archives.
  7. "U.S. Department of Education Announces Availability of Additional Flexible Repayment Plan to Help Borrowers Manage their Student Loan Debt | U.S. Department of Education". www.ed.gov. Retrieved December 19, 2018.
  8. "The Department's Communication Regarding the Costs of Income-Driven Repayment Plans and Loan Forgiveness Programs" (PDF).