IBRinfo

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Income-Based Repayment (IBR)
Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF)

Income-Based Repayment (IBR)

IBR is designed to help borrowers whose income makes a Standard (10-year) loan payment hard to afford. Anyone with eligible loans can apply to see if his or her payments will be more affordable under IBR.

IBR can help you if:

• You have federal student loans in either the Direct or Guaranteed (FFEL) Loan program.
• Your loans include Stafford, Grad Plus, and federal Consolidation loans that do not include Parent PLUS loans. Perkins loans are eligible if you consolidate them into a federal Guaranteed (FFEL) or Direct loan.
• You borrowed before or after IBR was created, for either graduate or undergraduate study.
• Your debt-to-income ratio qualifies you for reduced payments. Use our calculator to check if you might meet this test.

IBR is not available for:

• PLUS loans made to parents, or Consolidation loans that include Parent PLUS loans.
• Private (or "alternative") student loans, state loans, and other loans not guaranteed by the federal government.

Fixes to the Income-Based Repayment Program

Married Borrowers: When married couples both have federal student loans, they will no longer face higher IBR payments than their unmarried peers. For married borrowers who file their taxes jointly, lenders will factor in the couple's total federal student loan debt, as well as their total income, to calculate payments.  Originally, IBR did not recognize that joint income has to cover both spouses' federal loan payments, resulting in payment requirements up to twice what two equivalent single people would have to pay. 

Baseline Debt: IBR eligibility will be based on either the balance when the loan first entered repayment or on the current loan amount, whichever is greater.  This will allow borrowers whose loan balances have increased (often due to accrued interest during periods of deferment or forbearance) to qualify based on what they actually owe. 

Several examples of borrowers eligible for IBR are available from the Project on Student Debt. These can be helpful in understanding how IBR works.

To apply for IBR, contact your lender. If you do not know who is servicing your federal loans, search the National Student Loan Data System database.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF)

This benefit is for people who work in certain "public service" jobs in government and nonprofit 501(c)(3) organizations (for details see What are eligible jobs?). The program will forgive remaining federal student loan debt after 10 years of eligible employment and qualifying payments.

You may qualify for PSLF if:

• You have federal student loans in the Direct Loan program. Covered loans include Stafford, Grad PLUS, or Consolidation loans through the Direct Loan program.
  • If your federal loans are not in the Direct Loan program, you may be able to switch (see box on the right to find out more).
• Your Direct loans originated before or after the loan forgiveness program was created, for either graduate or undergraduate study.
• You work full time in an eligible job.
• While working in an eligible job, you make qualifying payments for a total of 10 years (120 monthly payments which do not have to be consecutive). As long as you are in the Direct Loan program, these payments can be made through the Standard (10-year) repayment, Income Contingent Repayment (ICR), and/or Income Based Repayment (IBR) plans.
• You are still working full time in an eligible job and have debt remaining after 120 qualifying payments.

If you believe you meet these requirements, you likely qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF). However, only the Department of  Education can confirm your eligibility, and it has yet to establish a formal application process. Please register here for updates as more details become available.

PSLF is not available for:

• Private (or "alternative") student loans, state loans, and other loans not guaranteed by the federal government.
• Payments made on federal loans in the Guaranteed (or FFEL) program.
  • If your federal loans are not in the Direct Loan program, find out how to switch (see box on the right to find out more).
• Payments made under graduated or extended repayment plans.
• Payments made or work performed before October 1, 2007.

How do I get them?