

First, discretionary income gets redefined for this new REPAYE plan. These lower payments happen for two main reasons. The big headline is the lower payments that you have probably seen after using the calculator. If you have a small loan balance and a large income, it’s possible that you might be better off enrolling in a balance-based plan such as the 10-year plan or the graduated repayment plan. That calculation is a bit more complicated and will be available in a future update. If you and your spouse both have federal student loans, filing separately may become extra beneficial under the new plan.

If you will be filing jointly, please enter your combined income.

If you expect to file separately on your next tax return, enter only your adjusted gross income in the line asking about income. This is a significant change from the current version of REPAYE, where married couples could not file separately in order to exclude spousal income from monthly payment calculations. Note for Married CouplesĬalculating monthly payments without counting spousal income would become possible with this new REPAYE plan. Unlike FFEL loans, a simple consolidation does not fix the Parent PLUS eligibility issue. The proposed changes would not alter this rule. Parent PLUS Loans – Parent PLUS loans are not eligible for any IDR plan other than the income-contingent repayment plan (ICR). All federal student loans would be eligible for this repayment plan except for two notable exceptions.įFEL Loans – FFEL loans are not eligible for REPAYE, or the new REPAYE plan, but could be made eligible through federal direct consolidation.
