In 2025, the U.S. Department of Education paused income-driven repayment plan discharges while fixing payment-count errors tied to litigation over the SAVE plan. At the end of September, the Department began forgiving loans for student loan borrowers with more than 300 qualifying payments and enrolled in the Income-Based Repayment Plan — the first approvals under this administration.

The Education Department says it paused IBR plan discharges in mid-2025 to “update systems” and “rebuild payment-count logic” affected by legal challenges to the SAVE plan. The injunction blocking SAVE and other IDR plans forced the agency to separate those programs inside its own software before it could process more student loan forgiveness discharges.

Department officials also told the court they needed time to prevent payment-count errors, rebuild tracking tools, and manage the impact of widespread staff layoffs. The Ombudsman’s office — the group that usually fixes bad data — was cut in half earlier this year, and a government shutdown furloughed most remaining staff just as the new system was coming online.

Advocates and attorneys aren’t sure how much of the pause was technical and how much was legal strategy. The American Federation of Teachers amended its lawsuit in September, arguing the Department had no legal basis to block IBR forgiveness while those updates were underway. Days later, borrowers with 300-plus payments began receiving approval emails.

So yes — the Department says this was a systems fix. But for borrowers who watched their payment counts disappear, it felt like another delay in a twenty-five-year wait.

The Education Department says it paused IBR plan discharges in mid-2025 to “update systems” and “rebuild payment-count logic” affected by legal challenges to the SAVE plan. The injunction blocking SAVE and other IDR plans forced the agency to separate those programs inside its own software before it could process more student loan forgiveness discharges.

Department officials also told the court they needed time to prevent payment-count errors, rebuild tracking tools, and manage the impact of widespread staff layoffs. The Ombudsman’s office — the group that usually fixes bad data — was cut in half earlier this year, and a government shutdown furloughed most remaining staff just as the new system was coming online.

Advocates and attorneys aren’t sure how much of the pause was technical and how much was legal strategy. The American Federation of Teachers amended its lawsuit in September, arguing the Department had no legal basis to block IBR forgiveness while those updates were underway. Days later, borrowers with 300-plus payments began receiving approval emails.

So yes — the Department says this was a systems fix. But for borrowers who watched their payment counts disappear, it felt like another delay in a twenty-five-year wait.