The US Capitol will be seen on the second day of federal government closures in Washington, DC on October 2, 2025
Mehmet Eser |Anadoru | Getty Images
Federal closures could exacerbate student loan delays that Congress already faces access to programs required and mandated by loan terms.
More than one million borrowers have joined the backlog to register in income-driven repayment plans, according to court records from mid-September.
During the closure, federal student aid staff “will not be able to carry out regular operations, including IDR backlog work,” a spokesman for the education department told CNBC on Wednesday. That day, the US government closed after lawmakers failed to reach the funding agreement. This means that most federal workers in the education sector will take temporary unpaid leave.
“Even before the closure, borrowers were at breakpoints,” said Michele Zampini, Vice President of Federal Policy and Advocacy at the Institute for University Access and Success.
“Borrowers will continue to face affordable payments as they are reportedly suspended at the moment.”
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Congress created the first IDR plan in the 1990s, making student loan borrowers’ bills more affordable. Historically, plans limit people’s monthly payments at a discretionary percentage of income, and usually cancel remaining debts after a certain period of 20 or 25 years.
This is something student loan borrowers need to know about getting into a new repayment plan right now.
Delays “destroy the lives of borrowers.”
As of August 31st, 1,076,266 people have already applied for income-driven repayment planning.
“It’s not surprising that there’s no progress in the IDR backlog during the shutdown, because staff working on it isn’t considered “essential,” says higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz.
However, Kantrowitz said, “Don’t clear the backlog is destroying the lives of borrowers.”
Many backlog borrowers may be trying to switch from Biden’s saves or save valuable education. The court shattered that program in February and believes borrowers, who are currently in the leniency of savings placed on borrowers during legal challenges, are increasing the profits of their debts. (The Trump administration began charging interest as of August 1st.)
“There’s been an interest in their lending, but they couldn’t switch to another plan,” Kantrowitz said.
In the meantime, backlog-locked borrowers may not have made any progress towards loan forgiveness, either in terms of IDR plans or in public service loan tolerance programs. PSLF will provide debt cancellations to certain civil or nonprofit workers in ten years’ time.
What Backlog Borrowers Can Do
For now, the best move that a student loan borrower can do in his backlog is to salt the money they would have made to pay, Kantrowitz said. This will allow the education department to switch to a different IDR plan and have ample cash available once the initial bill is due.
This remains a waiting game.
Carolina Rodriguez
Director of Education Debt Consumer Assistance Program
This waiting period may not count towards IDR or PSLF forgiveness, but Kantrowitz said that if you first applied for an IDR plan, you would initially be required to put yourself in a 60-day administrative tolerance, but for those two months he still relies on a timeline of forgiveness.
“Our advice to borrowers is to maintain a thorough record and monitor applications submitted during this period,” Carolina Rodriguez, director of the Education Debt Consumer Assistance Program, said of the backlog.
“When processing resumes, it’s important to follow up quickly to make sure your application is on track,” Rodriguez said. “Beyond that, unfortunately, this remains a game on standby.”
