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Aubrey Bertram was starting to imagine her life without student debt.
Bertram, a staff attorney at Wild Montana, a nonprofit that works on land conservation in the state, had just around two and a half years left of payments before her $247,804 federal student loan balance would be excused under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
But for many months now, she’s been frozen on her timeline to that relief.
“We’re not getting credit,” said Bertram, 35. “This time has been devastating.”
Bertram took out her loans in law school knowing that she’d work in public service and pursue PSLF.
“That was the only way taking on this debt made any sense,” Bertram said.
Aubrey Bertram with her dog, Rex
Courtesy: Aubrey Bertram
Millions of other student loan holders are in the same frustrating limbo now. After Republican-led legal challenges blocked the Biden administration’s new repayment plan in the summer of 2024, the borrowers who enrolled in the program, like Bertram, have found themselves stuck.
Many of those borrowers remain in a forbearance that doesn’t bring them closer to debt forgiveness, while the Trump administration recently revised other student loan repayment plans to no longer conclude in debt cancellation.
Here’s what to know about the current challenges to federal student loan forgiveness, and what you can do about them.
SAVE borrowers are stalled on way to forgiveness
D’Aungilique Jackson, of Fresno, California, holds a “Cancel Student Debt” sign outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., after the nation’s high court struck down President Joe Biden’s student debt relief program on Friday, June 30, 2023.
Kent Nishimura | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images
Many federal student loan borrowers who enrolled in the Biden administration-era SAVE, or Saving on a Valuable Education, plan remain in a forbearance as a result of GOP-led legal challenges to the program. But unlike the Covid-era pause on student loan bills, this forbearance does not give borrowers credit toward debt forgiveness under an income-driven repayment plan or Public Service Loan Forgiveness.
A recent U.S. appeals court decision blocked SAVE, as well as the loan forgiveness component under other income-driven repayment plans.
Historically, at least, IDR plans limit borrowers’ monthly payments to a share of their discretionary income and cancel any remaining debt after a certain period, typically 20 years or 25 years. PSLF, which President George W. Bush signed into law in 2007, allows certain not-for-profit and government employees to have their federal student loans wiped away after 10 years of payments.
“In the end, we may see borrowers lose over a year of monthly payments to count toward forgiveness,” said Elaine Rubin, director of corporate communications at Edvisors, which helps students navigate college costs and borrowing.
If you’re eager to be back on your way to debt cancellation, you have options, experts say.
You may be able switch out of the now-blocked SAVE plan and into another income-driven repayment plan. The Education Department recently re-opened several IDR plan applications, following a period during which the plans were unavailable. (The Trump administration said it was updating the plans’ applications to make them comply with the recent court order over SAVE.)
The IDR plans open now, according to the Trump administration, are: Income-Based Repayment, Pay As You Earn and Income-Contingent Repayment.
“The caveat on ICR and PAYE is that automatic forgiveness after 20 or 25 years is not available now since the courts have questioned that permissibility under statute,” said Scott Buchanan, executive director of the Student Loan Servicing Alliance, a trade group for federal student loan servicers.
Still, if a borrower enrolled in ICR or PAYE, then switches to IBR, their previous payments made under the other plans will count toward loan forgiveness under IBR, as long as they meet the plan’s other requirements, Buchanan said.
Meanwhile, borrowers in any of the three IDR plans can get credit toward PSLF.
Those who want to be making progress toward debt cancellation should see which plan comes with a monthly payment they can afford. There are several tools available online to help you determine how much your monthly bill would be under different options.
For now, Bertram has decided to stay put in the SAVE forbearance, even though she’s not moving any closer to debt forgiveness. She’s worried she’ll switch into a new repayment plan only to find that program has also been halted or amended.
“You’re constantly being jerked around by political rhetoric,” Bertram said. “I just hope I’m student-debt free before I’m 40.”
