Student Loan Recertification — On Hold For Many Until 2025

• You may still need to recertify even if your account is in forbearance.

• You can recertify online, by mail, or through automatic updates.

• You may experience processing delays due to the ongoing litigation with the SAVE Plan.

With constant changes to forbearance periods, payment amounts, and due dates, it’s no surprise that student loan borrowers feel overwhelmed. One day you receive a bill with a specific amount and due date, and the next, it changes—leaving you uncertain about what’s actually owed and when. Yet, there is one constant amidst all this uncertainty: your recertification date.

Recertifying your income and family size for an Income-Driven Repayment plan helps keep your payments affordable.

But if you haven’t recertified since before the pandemic, you may face a sudden increase in your payments.

Your payment could rise significantly if your income has increased or your family size has decreased since 2020.

Ahead, we’ll answer the most important questions about recertification, including:

• When you need to recertify to avoid a surprise spike in your payments

• How to recertify, especially when the online application at StudentAid.gov is down

• What to do if you’re on the SAVE Plan and it’s time to recertify amid legal uncertainty

Many borrowers enrolled in the SAVE Plan are now seeing their federal student loan recertification dates pushed to November 2025. This matches my experience when checking recertification dates for clients who are in forbearance due to the ongoing litigation.

The extension means you may have extra time before submitting your income information, which could help if you were worried about an upcoming increase in your monthly payment amount.

For borrowers whose recertification dates have been extended to November 2025, here’s the updated timeline:

• 3 months before: Your loan servicer will notify you of your new recertification deadline (e.g., for a November 2025 recertification, you’ll first hear from your servicer in August 2025).

• 35 days before: Submit your income information by this date to ensure your student loan payments remain based on your financial situation.

• 10 days before: This is your last chance to submit your income documents. Missing this deadline could result in being placed on a different repayment plan, likely with higher payments.

Stay ahead by checking your recertification date now and contacting your servicer to explore your repayment options.

Related: Who Do You Contact If You Have Questions About Repayment Plans?

If you’ve already submitted your IDR recertification and are now seeing a significant increase in your student loan payments, we know this can feel frustrating. The good news is that you still have options to avoid or minimize those higher payments.

Here’s what you can do:

• Check your loan servicer’s website (like Nelnet, Aidvantage, or MOHELA) to confirm if your recertification has been processed.

• If your recertification has already been processed and your payments have increased, contact your servicer to ask if you can pause or cancel the process.

• If your application hasn’t yet been processed, you may be able to withdraw it and wait until the extended date to resubmit. This could allow you to keep your current monthly payment amount longer.

Be proactive by reaching out to your servicer to explore ways to avoid a sudden increase in payments and manage your federal student loan effectively.

You can recertify your income and family size for your IDR Plan online at StudentAid.gov or by submitting a paper application to your servicer.

The online option was down for a time due to the SAVE Plan litigation, but it appears to be back up as of late September. That said, some borrowers have reported issues with the IRS import feature, which pulls your adjusted gross income from your tax return.

If this happens to you, you can always send a paper application to your servicer either by mail or by uploading it through their website.

And if you opted to give the Department of Education consent to access your tax information when you first applied for an IDR plan, they may automatically recertify your income each year.

You’ll still receive a notification before any payment changes take effect, and you can always manually update your income if your situation changes.

Many borrowers assume they need to use their tax return when recertifying. But that’s just one option.

A tax return looks at past income, which may not reflect your current situation. If your income has changed—due to retirement, job loss, or other one-time events like selling a house—you can use more current income documentation instead to recalculate your new payment.

Options for documenting your current income include:

• Recent pay stubs: If you’re still employed but your income has changed, recent pay stubs can show your current earnings.

• Unemployment benefits: If you’ve lost your job, you can use unemployment documentation to reflect your new income.

• A letter explaining your situation: If you’ve had a significant life change that isn’t reflected in pay stubs or tax documents, you can submit a letter detailing your current financial situation, along with any other supporting documents.

Always choose documentation that best represents your current financial status, not just what’s on your tax return.

Related: How to Lower Monthly Payments for Student Loans

If you miss your recertification deadline, your payments will no longer be based on your income, and depending on your IDR plan, several things can happen:

• For the SAVE Plan: You’ll be moved to an alternative repayment plan, where payments are recalculated to pay off your loan within 10 years or by the end of your SAVE repayment period.

• For PAYE, ICR, or IBR Plans: You’ll stay on the plan, but your monthly payments will revert to the standard 10-year repayment amount, which is often higher than income-based payments.

If you’re on autopay, be careful—your new, higher payment could be automatically deducted before you notice, potentially leading to overdraft penalties. Additionally, for IBR borrowers, any unpaid interest may lead to capitalization, increasing your loan balance and future interest costs.

To avoid these issues, take care to recertify on time. If you miss the deadline, contact your loan servicer to reenroll in your plan as soon as possible.

Whether you submit your recertification online or by mail, what matters most is that you turn in your application before the deadline. Servicers are dealing with a high volume of applications. And that may cause processing delays, don’t worry—if you submit on time, you won’t miss your deadline.

Still, it’s a good idea to be proactive.

After submitting your recertification, call your loan servicer to confirm they’ve received your application and ask them to add a note to your account verifying your timely submission.

This can help prevent any confusion or issues down the line, especially if there are delays in processing.

As of now, borrowers on the SAVE Plan should plan to recertify their income as required. Normally, being in forbearance doesn’t change your recertification date.

But the SAVE Plan is more complicated because new enrollments have been temporarily blocked due to ongoing legal challenges, which could impact your ability to recertify.

If you’re already on the SAVE Plan, you likely need to recertify as usual to keep your future payments manageable. But given the court’s decision to temporarily block new enrollments in the SAVE Plan, it’s possible that the process could change. It’s a good idea to stay informed and check with your student loan servicer and the Education Department for updates.

If recertification becomes unavailable due to the litigation, your servicer should notify you of any changes to your plan or deadlines.

Related: SAVE Plan Forbearance: What It Means

• How is Income-Based Repayment Calculated? – Learn how your income and family size determine your monthly payments under IDR plans.

• Income-Driven Repayment Adjustment – Discover how recent changes to IDR plans may impact your recertification and monthly payments.

• Apply for Income-Based Repayment – Need to apply for IDR? Find out the steps to enroll in an income-driven repayment plan.

Recertifying your income and family size for an Income-Driven Repayment plan keeps your payments manageable. With deadlines approaching and potential delays, stay proactive, submit your recertification on time, and keep in touch with your loan servicer.

Unsure about your next step or need help working through the process?

Book a call with one of our student loan experts to get personalized guidance and make sure you’re on track to manage your loans effectively.

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