Brunner Test Calculator
Organize your present finances, future circumstances, and repayment efforts using the structure of the Department of Justice’s May 2025 attestation. This tool gives no score or verdict.
Guided Brunner test and undue-hardship self-assessment.
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Scope
Estimate only · not legal advice · Tate Esq, LLC cannot see your servicer's or the government's records. This tool gives no score, verdict, or recommendation.
Loan and household
Start with the debt being assessed and everyone in the household. The full worksheet is sensitive and must not be sent to analytics.
Department-held federal loans use the standardized process directly. Other holders may use it; private loans do not.
Use the amount for the loans you are evaluating here.
Use $0 if no payment is currently required.
Residence information
Collected because it appears on the attestation-shaped worksheet. It is not used for geolocation.
Education and employment
This answer is also one of the Q18 facts.
Describe the program financed by the assessed loans.
Use current information.
What This Assessment Does
The worksheet separates the three Brunner prongs: present ability to maintain a minimal standard of living, circumstances affecting future ability to repay, and prior repayment efforts. It also inventories assets and missing documentation.
The output is deliberately descriptive. It does not decide whether an expense will be allowed, whether a presumption will be rebutted, whether conduct shows good faith, or whether a court will discharge a loan.
Read More About Undue Hardship
Review the Brunner test, how undue hardship is proved, the federal student-loan bankruptcy attestation, and the adversary-proceeding process.
Brunner Test Calculator FAQs
No. It organizes information commonly used in an undue-hardship analysis. It does not provide a score, probability, recommendation, or legal conclusion.
No. This is a private self-assessment modeled on parts of the form's structure. It is not a court filing, does not include a declaration under penalty of perjury, and is not transmitted to a court or the government.
The May 2025 attestation identifies five facts that support a rebuttable presumption about future inability to repay. Q19 lists additional reasons without calling them presumptions. The calculator preserves that distinction.
It is arithmetic based on what you entered. The Department attorney may evaluate National Standards, Local Standards, documentation, explanations, and other necessary expenses differently. The number is not a ruling or prediction.
No. The bankruptcy court must make an independent undue-hardship determination. A government recommendation or stipulation does not replace the court's role.
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