IDR Adjustment Delays: Updated Timeline and What to Do Now

• IDR adjustments will be completed before the 2024 presidential election, but most borrowers may not see their updated payment counts until January 2025 at the earliest.

• Eligible loans include Direct Loans, FFEL, Parent PLUS, and Perkins Loans. Non-Direct Loans needed consolidation by June 30, 2024.

• Borrowers with multi-consolidated loans may experience longer delays in seeing adjustments.

If you’re wondering when the Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) adjustments will be applied, here’s what we know:

• The Department of Education is expected to complete the IDR adjustment process before the 2024 presidential election.

• Most borrowers will not see their new payment counts until January 2025 at the earliest, especially those with multi-consolidated loans, which may take longer due to processing complexity.

• Borrowers have expressed understandable frustration with the delays, as the original deadline of September 1, 2024, was missed. But recent updates indicate that the Department is actively processing adjustments, and we anticipate further updates in the coming months.

What You Can Do:

• Check your account regularly to see if your payment count has been updated.

• Contact your loan servicer if you have questions about your eligibility or when you can expect changes.

• Ensure your loan consolidation is complete, if applicable, and all necessary paperwork is in order.

• We’ll continue to update this page as more details emerge, so you can stay informed about your adjustment status.

Related: Kamala Harris’s Student Loan Forgiveness Plans

• Announcement and Initial Timeline: The IDR adjustment was first announced in April 2022. It allows repayment time and certain periods of forbearance and deferment to count toward IDR forgiveness payment credit and PSLF Credit.

• Key Extensions: Since then, the timeline has shifted multiple times. The consolidation deadline was extended twice, most recently to June 30, 2024, to allow borrowers more time to consolidate loans and benefit from the adjustment.

• Impact of Other Student Loan Litigation: The delays aren’t just limited to the IDR Account Adjustment. Major student loan forgiveness plans, including the $10k-$20k forgiveness plan and the new “Plan B” forgiveness, have been blocked by lawsuits. The SAVE Plan is also currently on hold due to legal challenges. These legal battles have slowed the Department of Education’s ability to move forward with other student loan relief efforts, including the IDR adjustment.

• Current Status: As of now, many borrowers are still waiting for their accounts to be adjusted. Recent updates from the Department of Education suggest most borrowers should see adjustments soon, though the timeline may vary for those with multi-consolidated loans.

Related: Biden Student Loan Forgiveness

The Income-Driven Repayment waiver was introduced in April 2022 as part of a one-time account adjustment by the U.S. Department of Education. The waiver allows borrowers to count any repayment period and certain periods of deferment or forbearance toward loan forgiveness, regardless of which IDR plan they were enrolled in or whether they made payments during those periods.

This waiver applies to all types of loans, including Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program loans, Direct Loans, Parent PLUS Loans, Perkins loans, and some Health Education Assistance Loans. However, borrowers with non-direct Loans, such as commercially held FFEL Loans and HEAL Loans that aren’t held by the Education Department needed to apply for consolidation by June 30, 2024, to benefit from the waiver.

The IDR waiver counts time toward forgiveness for all IDR plans, including Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR), SAVE, and Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF). This means that borrowers who have made the required number of monthly payments under these plans—typically 20 or 25 years—could see their loans forgiven after the adjustment.

Even borrowers who were in forbearance or deferment for long periods may qualify for the waiver if their loans were in repayment status at any time during those periods. The adjustment could significantly reduce the number of years of payments required for many borrowers to achieve forgiveness.

Related: What Is An Administrative Forbearance? 

How do I check my payment count?

You can check your payment count by logging into your account on StudentAid.gov and navigating to your payment history. But many borrowers are reporting confusing or incomplete information in their accounts, including the appearance of terms like ‘totalProxyPaymentCount’ without explanation.

What is ‘totalProxyPaymentCount’?

Many borrowers have reported seeing a term called ‘totalProxyPaymentCount’ when they log into their loan accounts. This number appears to be an estimate of the total payments that are expected to count toward forgiveness under the IDR adjustment, but it is not final. Consider this number a placeholder that may change as adjustments are made.

What counts as a qualifying payment?

Under the IDR adjustment, any time spent in repayment, as well as certain periods of deferment or forbearance, can count as a qualifying payment. This includes months where you may not have made payments due to financial hardship, military service, or other eligible deferment periods.

Will consolidating my loans affect my payment count?

If you consolidate your loans before the June 30, 2024 deadline, your previous qualifying payments should carry over to your new consolidated loan. But if you consolidate after that deadline, you may lose credit for previous payments.

How do deferments and forbearances affect my payment count?

Under the IDR adjustment, certain periods of deferment and forbearance will count toward your total payments. This includes the COVID-related payment pause and periods of economic hardship, military deferment, and cancer treatment deferment. But some types of deferments, like in-school deferment, don’t count as a qualifying payment.

Under the IDR adjustment, your actual payment history may not be as important as the total time you’ve spent in repayment, deferment, or forbearance. With loans changing hands multiple times, getting accurate payment history from student loan servicers can be challenging, and many borrowers have reported missing or incomplete records.

To help simplify the process, we’ve built a free custom tool that reads your loan data directly from the TXT file you can download from StudentAid.gov. This tool will show your time in repayment, forbearance, and deferment for each loan listed on your account. Here’s how you can use it:

1. Download your TXT file from StudentAid.gov: Log into your account on StudentAid.gov, navigate to your loan summary, and download the TXT file that contains your loan details.

2. Use the custom tool to read your data: Upload your TXT file to our free tool, and it will automatically display your total time in repayment, deferment, and forbearance for each loan. This will give you a clear picture of your progress toward forgiveness under the IDR adjustment.

3. Track your progress: Once you have the data from the tool, you can compare it with any updates from your loan servicer after the IDR adjustment is applied. If there are discrepancies, you’ll have a detailed record to reference.

Right now, we’re in a period of uncertainty. The U.S. Department of Education had promised that the one-time payment count adjustment would be completed by September 1, 2024, but as of September 7, there have been no new updates. The Department has not provided any clear communication about what happens next or why the deadline was missed.

While the ongoing student loan litigation doesn’t directly affect the one-time adjustment, it’s possible that other factors are causing delays. Some believe the Department may be aiming to complete the adjustments before the next presidential election to solidify the benefits for borrowers, but this is only speculation.

At this point, what we know for sure is that the IDR adjustment is still happening, even if the timeline is unclear. Borrowers should continue checking their accounts regularly and staying informed about any new announcements from the Department of Education or their loan servicer.

It would be helpful if the Department provided a roadmap, like a software company would, showing us where they are in the process and what to expect next. Unfortunately, that kind of transparency hasn’t been offered yet. Until then, the best advice we can offer is to remain patient and proactive—use the tools available to track your progress and be prepared for when the adjustment is finally applied.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the IDR adjustment process, you’re not alone. Sorthing through the mess that is the federal student loan system, repayment plans, and figuring out your IDR payment count can be confusing, especially with changing rules and deadlines.

If you’d like expert guidance, my team and I are here to help.

We’ve worked with countless student loan borrowers and understand the complexities of income-driven repayment plans and direct consolidation loans. Book time with us to get personalized support and take control of your student loan repayment journey. We’re ready to help you figure out the best path forward.