Key insights
- The Department of Education is reinstating a payment counter for income-driven student loan repayment plans. While this provides clarity for borrowers, the on-again, off-again nature of the tool creates uncertainty. The impact on US equities is slightly negative, as potential debt forgiveness could marginally reduce future consumer spending and investment.
%3Amax_bytes(150000)%3Astrip_icc()%2FStudentLoanPictures2-9044584b1ae346708cf406e80d42cc42.png&w=3840&q=75)
Get personalized, AI-powered answers built on 27+ years of trusted expertise.
After almost a year without official payment counts, the Department of Education recently announced it is bringing back a tool to track student loan forgiveness.
Federal student loan borrowers on an income-driven repayment plan can have the remaining debt discharged after making qualifying monthly payments for 20 or 25 years, depending on the plan. The "IDR payment counter" on the Federal Student Aid website allowed borrowers to see how many payments they had made and how long it would take to receive forgiveness.
This tool was taken down in April 2025, but the Department of Education recently said it is updating its system to resume the payment counter.
There are currently about 12.6 million federal student loan borrowers in an income-driven repayment plan. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, these borrowers have faced several changes to their repayment plan, which many say have confused and overwhelmed them. Knowing how far they are from forgiveness can provide some clarity about their debt.
However, the Department of Education has been inconsistent with its plans for the IDR payment counter.
Before the Biden Administration left the White House in late January 2025, it created the payment counter. That April, the Department of Education took the counter down.
A couple of months later, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said the Department of Education planned to restore the counter soon. Yet, in December, the Education Department said it was no longer using the tool and had no plans to resume it.
The Department of Education has yet to respond to questions about an estimated date for when the IDR payment counter will be back up.
Student loan borrowers have seen many significant changes to their repayment plans and forgiveness over the past year. The resumption of the payment tracker will help them understand how close they are to forgiveness after those changes.
The Department of Education will open a new income-driven repayment plan, the Repayment Assistance Plan, for borrowers to begin enrolling in on July 1, 2026. While monthly payments are lower under RAP than under other repayment plans for some borrowers, this plan delays forgiveness by five to 10 years compared to the existing income-driven repayment plans.
Once it's up, the payment counter can help borrowers understand if they are close to forgiveness and if moving to the RAP plan is worth it.
Additionally, the Saving for a Valuable Education plan, a Biden-era income-driven repayment plan, was ruled illegal in March.
The decision forces the almost 7.2 million borrowers still enrolled in the SAVE plan to move to another repayment plan and resume payments after being in forbearance for almost two years. Depending on which income-driven repayment plan they choose, their forgiveness date may be delayed compared to what it would have been under the SAVE plan.
In the same lawsuit, the district judge confirmed that time spent in certain types of forbearance and deferments counted toward the payment count for income-driven repayment forgiveness.
For borrowers in these specific forbearance and deferment programs, this change will increase the number of qualifying payments and bring them closer to forgiveness.
Get personalized, AI-powered answers built on 27+ years of trusted expertise.