The U.S. Department of Education has temporarily removed online applications for income-driven repayment plans.
This comes after a U.S. Court of Appeals last month blocked the agency from implementing former President Joe Biden’s "Saving on a Valuable Education" plan. Known as "SAVE," the plan would have reduced monthly payments and shortened the time it takes to receive student loan forgiveness.
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It was launched in 2023 but has been on hold since last July due to lawsuits.
Now, the Trump administration says that those in the SAVE Plan will be placed in forbearance until September and that borrowers in income-driven replacement plans will need to begin recertifying in 2026.
The SAVE Plan was intended to provide some borrowers with lower income-driven repayments, while the plan also called for forgiving some borrowers' loans outright. When the Biden administration first enacted the SAVE Plan in 2023, borrowers with only undergraduate loans began repaying loans at 10% of their discretionary income. What is considered discretionary income increased from 150% to 225% of the federal poverty level under Biden's order.
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The plan eventually called for payments to be paid back at 5% of a borrower's discretionary income.
