IBRinfo

So Far, So Good

After several months of negotiations, the U.S. Department of Education and representatives of students, lenders, colleges, and consumers have reached agreement on how the Income-Based Repayment (IBR) and Public Service Loan Forgiveness programs should work.

Although the regulations for both programs won't be finalized until later this year, the latest draft includes important clarifications of eligibility requirements and other details that affect how borrowers can benefit.

We've updated the information on IBRinfo.org to reflect the latest version of the regulations.

The most significant clarifications for IBR are:

• Certain loan payments made before IBR goes into effect in July 2009 will count towards the 25 years of payments required for loan forgiveness through IBR.
• When a borrower's required IBR payment is $0, it will still count towards the 25 years of payments required for loan forgiveness (the required payment will be $0 if your income is at or below 150% of the poverty level for you family size).

The most significant clarifications for Public Service Loan Forgiveness are:

• More examples of eligible jobs.
• A definition of "full-time" employment that includes teachers and others whose work year is less than 12 months long.

For more information about both programs, go to IBRinfo.org.

Next Steps

Soon, the Department will publish the draft regulations in the Federal Register and ask for comments from the public -- we'll let you know when and how you can weigh in. Then, the Department will review the comments and possibly make changes in response. They expect to publish final regulations by November 1, 2008. We'll keep you, and IBRinfo.org, up to date throughout this process.

(This announcement was emailed to IBRinfo subscribers on April 17, 2008.)