Income-Driven Repayment Plans: Questions And Answers - Federal Student Aid, U.s. Department Of Education Page 17
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26Repayment Plan will generally count toward the required 20 or 25 years of qualifying monthly payments
for the income-driven repayment plan. Similarly, if you were previously in repayment under one income-
driven repayment plan and later switched to a different income-driven repayment plan, payments you
made under both plans will generally count toward the required years of qualifying monthly payments for
the new plan.
Also, any month that you are in an economic hardship deferment generally counts as the equivalent of a
qualifying monthly payment for purposes of the income-driven repayment plans. That is, even though you
are not required to make payments on your loans during a deferment, any months spent in an economic
hardship deferment while you are repaying under an income-driven repayment plan will generally count
toward the required 20 or 25 years of qualifying monthly payments. (Note that months spent in any other
type of deferment or months spent in forbearance do not count as the equivalent of qualifying monthly
payments.)
Depending on the repayment plan, only payments you made after a certain date or months of economic
hardship deferment after a certain date may be counted toward the required 20 or 25 years of qualifying
monthly payments. For the ICR Plan, payments made under certain other repayment plans (in addition to
those listed above) may also count toward the required 25 years of qualifying monthly payments,
depending on when you first entered repayment on your loans. Your loan servicer can provide you with
more detailed information about these requirements.
If 20 or 25 years (as applicable) have passed, but you have not made the equivalent of 20 or 25 years of
qualifying monthly payments, you would not yet be eligible to receive forgiveness of any remaining loan
balance. The example below explains this.
Example
You entered repayment under the REPAYE Plan in December 2015.
To qualify for forgiveness of any remaining loan balance at the end of the 20-year repayment period,
you must have made the equivalent of 20 years of qualifying monthly payments (240 qualifying
monthly payments) and 20 years must have elapsed.
In 2019, you receive forbearance for 12 months.
In 2022, you receive an economic hardship deferment for 12 months.
After 20 years have elapsed (December 2035), you have made the equivalent of 19 years of
qualifying monthly payments (216 monthly payments under the REPAYE Plan, plus 12 months of
economic hardship deferment, for a total of 228 qualifying monthly payments). The 12 months of
forbearance do not count toward the required 20 years of qualifying monthly payments. Therefore,
you would not qualify for forgiveness of any remaining loan balance until after you have made the
equivalent of an additional 12 months of qualifying monthly payments.
29. If my required monthly payment amount under an income-driven repayment plan is
zero, does that still count as qualifying repayment?
Yes. Any month when your required payment is zero will count as qualifying repayment.
30. How will I know when I’m eligible to receive forgiveness of any remaining loan balance?
Your loan servicer will track your qualifying monthly payments and years of repayment and will notify you
when you are getting close to the point when you would qualify for forgiveness of any remaining loan
balance.
Federal Student Aid |
StudentAid.gov
Page 17 of 26
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