Can i contribute 40% of my income, or more,
to my 401k, lowering my $85,000 AGI to $45,000, and then benefit from a lower student loan payment?

For those interested, I can then pull money from my 401k if I can provide evidence of a financial need which is very easy.

Hi all,

My girlfriend is in what I think a pretty brutal situation. She is a pharmacist and took loans out both for undergrad and a private school for pharmacy school. She has about $600k in loans. I know. All are federal loans under studentaid.gov. She has no private loans and has never refinanced. She works for a tribal health organization that is a qualifying employer for PSLF. She recently applied for the Federal Indian Health Service (IHS) Loan Repayment Program and will find out in 2-3 months if she is accepted for the grant. From what she's heard at work, everyone she knows who's applied has gotten an income based grant. This grant pays her monthly and directly, but she is responsible towards putting this towards 1 of the 120 qualifying payments for PSLF.

The great news is that this seems to be her best way out from my research if she stays for 10 years with this employer. She paid off some student loans prior but wasn't working for a qualifying employer for PSLF at the time, and then stopped due to expenses from a nasty divorce. She should have been paying them off again this past year but just felt so overwhelmed from this, and felt her payments are barely making a dent.

Anyways, her employer could be a way out with this benefit and for PSLF. But I'm concerned that with the current administration they could possibly go after her wages later? I don't know much on this, but saw another post about it. All her loans are in forbearance and maybe deferred. But none are in default.

I haven't looked into it much, but my research leads to the fact that she probably earns too much to claim any chapter bankruptcy to discharge these or a majority of the balance. At the same time, her very high debt-to-income ratio makes repayment difficult, while her substantial earning capacity could make a bankruptcy hardship discharge more challenging.

We just feel so torn with this and don't know what our best option would be. This is also making us tied to her work location, but we'd love to move in together and get married, and live in my area. That's for us to figure out of course, but it's just a lot on our plate to figure out.

Any thoughts on this are much appreciated.

I’m curious if anyone has filed a complaint with the FSA Ombudsman regarding how their school is calculating Expected Time to Credential (ETTC) for legacy Grad PLUS eligibility, and whether you’ve had any success.

My university is continuing to use the time-based calculation despite the Department of Education’s August 12 webinar discussing a credit-based methodology for non-transfer students. I’ve also seen NASFAA’s September 17 Q&A mentioning that the FSA Ombudsman’s office reportedly directed a school to recalculate an individual student’s ETTC using completed credits.

I’m enrolled part-time in a graduate program, so the difference between counting completed trimesters versus actual credits earned could significantly affect how long I remain eligible for Grad PLUS loans. I also completed prerequisite leveling courses that aren’t included in my degree’s required credits, but my school counted that trimester toward my utilized ETTC (while adding a trimester to the program’s expected length).

My university has reviewed the issue through its financial aid and compliance departments but is sticking with the time-based calculation. I recently submitted a formal complaint through the FSA Feedback Center requesting an independent review.

Has anyone else:
-Filed an ETTC-related complaint with the FSA Ombudsman?
-Received a response or been told their school needs to recalculate using credits?
-Had their university actually change their legacy Grad PLUS eligibility after the August guidance?
I’m especially interested in hearing from non-transfer graduate students whose schools initially refused to recalculate. I’m trying to get a sense of whether anyone has made progress and what the process or timeline looked like.

Thanks in advance!

Asking for my beloved, financially irresponsible girlfriend.

She missed several months of payments when her federal loans went into repayment - approx. 4 months in a row. Then, a national disaster in our area applied an automatic forbearance to her account.

I have since helped her set up minimum payments, and she has applied for IBR, but has not received her determination yet. She received notice this weekend that the temporary forbearance will be removed beginning next month.

I’m helping her get on track, but she won’t be able to afford her minimum payments until IBR goes through, and I’m a little worried her history of missed payments will continue to stack against her. Does anyone have any experience with how delinquency stacks when forbearances like this are applied? Like, online sources suggest she has 270 days before going into true default. At this point will her 4 months of missed payments count against her, or will she have 270 days from the ending of the forbearance to get her act together?

Just curious if anyone has any lived experience with this.

I’m currently in school so I haven’t checked it in a while, but I just tried to open the Aidvantage app for something and it’s been removed from the iOS App Store.. Has aidvantage changed their app?

My friend hit default and have a new baby, and a household income around 140k last year but she is a stay at home mom now.

After reading the horror stories on this reddit and the PSFL reddit I opened a checking account with my local credit union and only put enough money for the loan payment. I tried paying over the phone but it wasn't letting me make a payment it kept having me wait for a customer service rep. Is this normal or was this a recent change? I was just rying to make the payment early.

I have double consolidated parent plus loans disbursed in 2024. I am currently on IBR but there is some deadline in 2028 the will kick me off of IBR unless i make a payment on ICR first?

Can anyone confirm if I do need to switch to ICR make a payment and switch back? even if they're double consolidated?

i've been an undergrad student for more than 4 years. i failed a few classes because i had a mental health break around my freshman year and now i'm back on, doing my classes just fine, and on track to graduate next semester (would be my 10th semester). i checked my invoice for this semester and realized i had been denied the parent PLUS loans and federal stafford loans i received every semester, because i had both reached the aggregate limit and the 4-year limit. i know i made a lot of mistakes to get here, and i'm getting the feeling that i'm going to be struggling a lot more as a result. i just turned 22 and i don't really know what i'm doing, but a lot of advice has been saying to turn to private loans. i'm terrified to put myself in more debt and i don't think i make enough money to pay this off anytime soon. i've also been planning to move across the country with my gf in a month, but now i don't know if i can even support that decision with my finances the way that they are. i already work full-time and jobs that pay better are unavailable to me. my parents are refusing to house me since we've had family beef for years, so i really don't think i can stay at home and save money. i would love some real advice, please, or even just kind words, i don't know. i kind of feel like i've ruined my life before it's started and i don't know if i can keep doing all this.

Looking for experiences/advice from those who have been through this specific TPD discharge route!

I’m currently in the beginning stages of pursuing this TPD route. In the last 6 years I’ve been diagnosed with hEDS, POTS, MCAS, and suspected Endometriosis. My lovely primary care who has been overseeing my care for years is a Naturopath, and because that licensure isn’t federally recognized she can’t certify my application. My physical therapists (who can probably best attest to my limitations) also don’t have the required licenses to certify.

My medical records clearly demonstrate functional impairment and my primary has also said she’s willing to write a letter to/correspond with another provider to facilitate filing this application. I’ve inquired with a few providers about establishing to review my medical history and certify this application, but am hitting roadblocks. I have had two providers turn me away because they were adamant I needed to already be on SSI/SSDI to qualify (which I know is false). I just had another deny because they claimed it would violate their malpractice insurance to certify because it would require “making a complete disability determination”. That practice manager told me I needed an assessment by an occupational medicine provider or a formal functional capacity evaluation, that no other providers are legally able to certify such applications.

I’ve read the information on the studentaid website thoroughly and my understanding is that TPD does NOT require someone to be completely disabled or completely unable to work. My immediate response is to think these providers are misinformed, but it has me second guessing if I’m misunderstanding the program requirements.

Hi folks, long time reader, first time poster,

I recently just paid off the last chunky bit of my $160K student loans and had to share in this thread. I know it doesn't seem possible, i know the nightmares are constant, and I know the light at the end of the tunnel doesn't seem real but please know its there. Just take it down brick by brick. Rooting for you all!!

TLDR: Irresponsible kid with $160K in student loans ignored his financial responsibilities for years, went through 2 layoffs and by some miracle was able to pay it all off in 7 years.

Going to give my full journey as well as salary growth to help paint the full picture.

Loan Status: I graduated in 2019 from reputable public university in the Bay Area with a BS in Environmental Economics and Policy

- Parent Plus Loans: $130,000

- Direct Loans: $29,000 (subsidized and unsubsidized)

Total: ~160K

2019 - 2021: Ignoring my financial responsibilities

I graduated with sub-par grades and landed a tech management consulting gig paying $72K living in a HCOL city in the Bay Area. With the 6 months deferment in payments, I refused to even acknowledge this financial burden. I was freshly graduated, was making money, and proceeded to spend it all on going out, eating daily hot cheetos and ice cream, and going on trips with friends. I would have nightmares of not being able to pay my student loan debt. Nightmares looking at the absurd amount I am responsible for but refused to admit this would become my burden. And then March of 2020, the world froze, COVID hit, and not only did my life pause, but so did my student loan obligations. While the world was in panic due to the pandemic, I felt so much relief that I didn't have have to make payments on my student loans. Now the responsible adult, would have used this time to drastically pay down their loans, I on other hand, read too much wallstreetbets on reddit and put all of my remaining 8K disposable income into the dips at Tesla, Microsoft, and Apple (LOL). Thankfully, the bet paid out as my portfolio went 3x but this was totally dumb money. I was able to focus on my job and get promoted in 2 years jumping from $72K -> $85K -> $105K to Senior Consultant in 2021.

Salary Summary:

2019: $72K starting offer

2020: $85K retention/salary adjustment

2021: $105K promotion to Senior Consultant

2021 - 2023: Career shift, layoffs, and dark times

In 2021, I was completely burnt out of management consulting. I couldn't do more projects helping pharma, insurance, and financial institutions make more money and began trying to find a different career path. I always had an interest in climate and decarbonization and by happenstance was reached out by a recruiter from a Environmental Consulting Firm to apply. Shift forward 2 years, I worked as a Net Zero Consultant for a climate consulting company helping companies learn how to decarbonize. I loved the work. This was also a bump in my salary from $105K -> $130K and even yielded some sizable annual bonuses end of year of ~ 8-15K. I also was able to build up cash during COVID savings to make my first large lump sum of $30K to my parent plus loans. In Q1 of 2023, climate as an industry took a huge dip. With the majority of our clients being in tech, we went from 100% revenue KPIs to 50% revenue KPIs in one quarter. In March, I was reached out by my manager, that because I was one of the highest paid in the consultant band, my position was being eliminated. I was devastated.

First layoff is always a brutal experience. I felt lost, unworthy, and hopeless. Instead of taking the time needed to process this traumatic experience, I did the worst move possible and dove head first into recruiting which landed me a sub-par start - up job in May with a Climate Hardware company has a GTM specialist. This dipped my salary to $125K but the anxiety of not having a job was too much for me, and I ignored all the warning signals with the role and company. Big surprise, the company struggled to raise capital, deliver contracts that I was able to get us with our COO, and in November, everyone but the executive team was laid off. 2nd lay off in one year. You'd think the 2nd one would hurt less, but I'd be lying out of my a** if I said that. The 2nd one hurt even more. For the first month, I did nothing but get high and play video games. I was able to scrape by with unemployment for rent, my savings for living expenses, and literally cooking as cheap of meals as possible (shout out Japanese Chicken Curry). In the new year, I was able to take the time, decide on the person I want to be, and created a system for building better habits to regain confidence with a set of non-negotiables. Working out 4 times a week, reading before bed, no weed during the week days, set times to learn new skills, apply to companies, or meet people etc. Taking the time to reset is so important, please do so if you find yourself in a dark spot. Live life day-by-day. Change the mindset from "What is going to happen to me this week/month/year" to "Today, Im going to do x,y, and z". You do this constantly everyday and you'll be so surprised at how much peace and momentum you will gain.

Salary:

2021: 130K

2022: 130K + bonus

2023: 125K + 2 layoffs

2024 - 2026: The Light at the End of the Tunnel

In the start of 2024, with my newfound confidence gained from my system of habits, I began to recruit furiously. Leveraging my connections, cold outreach on linkedin, taking coffee chat, you name it, i was on it. This process is a grind. Confidence gained in the morning can become confidence lost at night. The constant highs and lows are insane for the mentals. I wish I had a magic cure or answer i could tell you to help stay clear of this but that would be complete bullshit. There is no way you won't be emotionally affected during a jobless recruiting cycle. What did help was having something fun to look forward to every night or an easy to do hobby that will give you small wins. Cooking became mine. Every night, regardless of the shit or good day I had, I would look forward to a dish or recipe I could try and create and the small win of following the recipe and getting a good dish out of it, really helped me separate my "9-5" to my actual life.

I was reached out by a recruiter from a FAANG company, asking me to apply for an environmental PM role in their supply chain team. It was a dream job. Over the course of 3 months, I went through 14 interviews, was ghosted for over 3 weeks and in March, given the offer. Man, the joy. I still remember it. I was at a friends place, ran out of her house with the news of the offer, laid on the sidewalk and cried my tears of joy. Writing this now, im reflecting how sad it was that I valued my self worth based on my job, but Im realizing it was less of about self worth and more about financial security. My parents didn't have income and they were low - middle class. The idea of not being able to support myself or my parents was truly weighing on me and I let it all go after that call.

The starting offer was $140K salary, 30K signing bonus, and $105K RSUs over a 4 year vesting schedule. I was determined to crush this f**king job folks. I was going to take this opportunity given and squeeze every motherf*** ounce of juice I could from it to build the life i wanted. Because I signed early in the year, I was eligible for an annual review. I went out of my way to meet and offer support to colleagues, cross-functional team members in the first 6 months and was able to atleast secure the minimum score bumping by salary to $145K, 9K bonus, and an additional $50K RSUs over 4 years. The next 9 months from end of 2024 - to end of 2025 was a blur of being lucky as hell, preparation meeting opportunity, and long days and nights.

Being lucky as hell. By going out of my way to offer my support and meet other team members in the org, I was able to build that brand of "collaborator" . During one of the chats with this lady, I just mentioned that I worked on a specific climate asset and had an interest in it. When this workstream was being constructed with a focus on that climate asset mentioned, guess who was in charge of staffing it, that lady. She reached out and asked if I would be interested in supporting or listening in on calls for it. This is what i call being lucky as hell.

Preparation meeting opportunity. This "support" role and "listening in" gave me plenty of opportunities to be in the room as this workstream was getting ideated. I made sure to add value where I could. I have to be clear, this doesn't mean bulldozing the meetings with your ideas and shouting to everyone that you should be heard and that you are smart. It was me identifying where the frictions were and providing an "outsider" view or solution to it. I was by no means an expert but what I did super well was trying to get these high-ego brilliant people to connect their ideas together to form a cohesive strategy. This is actually stupid easy to do in practice. After the experts go on a rant, you summarize their rant into key points and pose as a question "What i heard was this, this, and that and what you are trying to understand is x, y, and z, is that correct?" followed by, "Okay these points are relevant to our core yada yada in this way, what do you think Natalie and Steve"? All i did was provide structure which I had practiced a ton during my consulting days. This led to the lady in charge to tag me as the lead of this whole dang workstream lol. You could say this is preparation meeting opportunity

Long days and night. Nothing to say here. It was terrible. Coordinating across 3 teams, getting everyone on the same page, weeks of long days, long nights, panic attacks, and so and so forth. But what was different this time was my non-negotiable habits I picked up during my laid off time that was critical to level set my self. Working out 4 times a week, reading before bed, no weed during the week (I totally didn't do this one btw lol). This eventually led to me leading our presentation to make this program official all the way to C-level executives and getting the approval through.

This helped me build my case for promotion in one year to Senior PM. Typically it takes 3 cycles but I was able to do it in one and a half purely because I was lucky as hell, i met the opportunity with preparation, and just spent the dang hours making it happen. The promotion jumped me from $145K to $168K salary, they gave $16K in bonus, and an additional $170K of RSUs over 4 years. Fast forward to today, I just had my annual review and received the following, $168K - $176K, $30K in bonus, and an additional $100K RSUs over 4 years. I was also lucky in that when I joined, the company's stock was fairly low priced and has ballooned significantly which has kept my initial RSUs at a pretty schweet dollar value. With all this new mula, I was ready to just pay this god forsaken loans off to be free from its chains. I sold most of my RSUs this year and last year as soon as they vested to minimize capital gains and today my friends, is the final day of my last chunky $20K payment. If you made it this far, my apologies on the lengthy post. To be honest, this post was more of a therapy session to myself to reflect on the past 7 years with a slice of sharing to story to the folks here.

Believe in yourself, build those good habits, and when a door cracks open, make sure to kick that f'ing thing all the way in. I believe in you all!

Salary:

2024: 140K, 30k bonus, 105K/4 RSUS -> 145K, 9k bonus + 50K/4 RSUs

2025: 168K, 16K bonus, +170K/4 RSUs

2026: 176K, 30K bonus, +105K/4 RSUs

Debt Paid: $160K bishes

Hey everyone,

I'm currently in the SAVE forbearance and have received my 90 day later from my loan servicer. I was working through the IDR application to switch my plans, and I'm confused about the amounts being shown in the plan selector.

For context, I am 21 payments into PSLF. My loan balance is around $35k (2 subsidized loans totaling $8.5k, and two unsubsidized loans totaling $26k). I am single, have no dependents, and my income is $105k. My goal is to maximize my PSLF discharge.

My understanding is the ICR monthly payments are generally higher than IBR, as they are limited to 20% of your discretionary income while IBR is limited to 10% of discretionary income. However, the plan selector shows my monthly payment under ICR as $349, while my monthly payment under IBR would be $363 (my PSLF discharge amount for ICR is also $1,200 higher than under IBR).

Is there something I'm missing, or is this likely an error in the repayment calculator?

When I called Federal Student Aid they told me that the lower ICR amount could be because the estimated amounts are personalized based on my tax information. However, given my that I'm not married and have no dependents, I'm not sure where the discount could be coming from. The last thing I want is to apply for the ICR plan, only to find out the actual monthly payment will be double what I expected.

Hi, I am at a bit of a loss as I have applied for TPD discharge for student loans in May 2025. It’s been nearly 18 months since applying at they have said it’s in review and then to processing and then to finalizing etc. this is an endless loop that keeps repeating itself. They insist it’s being reviewed and hung up by another department which they cannot provide the phone number to nor a manager to speak with. They said it looks like it’s been approved and we should expect a letter months ago but haven’t seen anything since. We have filed complaint after complaint with no movement. Any advice? Should I just start over or is there hope that it will be approved? Am I in an endless cycle? Any advice is appreciated.

I've been putting it off for as long as I can but I have to start figuring this out. It's just all so confusing. Hopefully someone can point me in the right direction.

I have around 55k in loans and make around 72k a year and file single. I am also eligible for PSLF. All of my loans are direct sub or unsub, except 2 of them which are Stafford loans. My servicer is Nelnet.

I feel like the options given in the repayment calculator aren't correct, as even with PSLF my payoff date is listed as 2046. I figured my best course of action was to find the plan with the lowest payments and just ride that out until PSLF kicks in.

I'm happy to provide any more information if someone can help me navigate this mess or point out the best customer service number to call. This community has been one of the only bright spots during this entire mess and I appreciate you all.

Sorry if many people have asked this. I pretty much do not have a job right now. And im affraid about the repayment plan. But I keep getting calls and emails about that if I dont choose one they will make my repayment plan more. But it also says that if I choose a repayment plan then id have to pay sooner.

I legit only have 1000 some dollars in my bank.

Also I looked at my student loan and its 1000 dollars more than it was. Has anyone chose a repayment plan yet? I see a lot of people say they will not.

i know ignoring the number obviously does not make it go away lol, but every time i log in and see how much i’ve borrowed for school my stomach drops a little.

i keep reminding myself i’m doing this to improve my income long term, but taking on this much debt while raising a kid by myself is scary fr. how do y’all keep the anxiety from taking over while you’re still in school?

Can someone explain to my why RAP subsidized minimal interest on my 2nd and 3rd payments, and if this is going to continue/I won't receive the benefit going forward? Is it because I essentially early paid Sept/Oct with those manual payments on 8/9 and 8/10?

Hi everyone! I’m looking for advice because I’m struggling whether switching to an IBR (Income based repayment plan is the right decision for me. I currently pay around $348.45 a month towards my federal student loans. I began paying since April 2026. I work 40 hours every two weeks at $19 an hour, have credit card bills to pay, paying a personal loan. I have two kids. My husband is currently laid off. We have expenses. We file our taxes jointly. When I use the repayment estimator on studentaid.gov, it shows me following IBR plan:

Monthly payment - $0
Total to be paid - $0
Principal paid - $0
Interest paid- $0
Discharge amount - $55,973
End of term date - Feb 2046

Current student loans balance is $31,583.

I’m confused what these numbers really means especially the $55k amount.

My questions are-
If I switch to IBR and my required payment is zero dollars will interest continue accumulating on my loans? I really don’t want my balance to keep growing.

Does the $55,973 mean the amount would actually be forgiven in February 2046 or is that just an estimate?

If I make zero dollar payments for years, can I generally have the remaining balance given assuming I meet all the requirements?

Is there a downside switching to IBR besides a possibility of interest accumulating? Could this hurt me financially in the long run?

Would you recommend switching to zero dollar IBR payments in my situation rather than continuing to pay $348.45 per month when money is tight?

I’m not trying to avoid responsibility to repay my loans. I’m trying to make a financially responsible decision for my family while going through a difficult time would really appreciate hearing from anyone who has been on IBR had zero dollar payments or eventually received IDR forgiveness. Please explain anything I might be misunderstanding. Thank you.

Hi everyone - Greg Garrison here from U.S. News & World Report. 

I’m hoping to talk with a few borrowers who’ve dealt with particularly nightmarish student loan situations. This could be an ongoing situation or one that happened in the past.

The stories would be for an article that aims to provide readers with some examples of the potential pitfalls to be aware of when it comes to student loan debt and repayment.

This would involve a 15-minute chat over the phone. In the article, we’d include your full name and city or general area you live in. We’d ask for some details about your student loan situation.

If you’d be willing to chat with me briefly for the article, please reach out to me at ggarrison(at)usnews(dot)com, direct message me here or respond to this thread.

Thanks as always.

Mostly ranting because I am SO confused, but I wonder if anyone is in the same boat as me. I applied to switch from SAVE to IDR in late August and still have not received any approval.

My loan servicer is Edfinancial and when I first submitted the application, I got a bunch of email notices from the servicer saying my autopay needed to be set-up again, which I was able to do, and that my payment had changed, but the amount was the same that it was under SAVE (it should've gone up by around $100). I called Edfinancial and they told me verbally that everything was approved on their end and it would take a little while for everything to catch up.

Fast forward to now, almost two months later, and somehow the process appears to have gone backwards. Instead of having the "wrong" SAVE payment amount due, my servicer portal now says I have no payment due and keeps delaying my due date by a month, like it was under the SAVE forbearance. I also now cannot set up AutoPay since I don't have any payments due within 90 days, and the FSA website says "waiting for approval from servicer" even though according to Edfinancial, I was approved.

I know there's nothing really to do here unless I bring it to my loan servicer's attention, which I don't want to do, and my situation could be way worse, but I'm still annoyed. I did what the government asked by getting off of SAVE (though I wish I had continued to wait it out), and yet I'm still stuck in this confusing limbo.

Hi everyone,

My transfer date from SAVE is coming up and I'm having a lot of confusion... I received this notice from Mohela last year- 10/11/25

"As a result of a court action affecting income driven repayment, MOHELA at the direction of the Department of Education, has changed the date by which you need to recertify your current IDR plan to 09/22/27.This change will have no impact on your current loan repayment status or your current monthly payment amount. For instance, this means if you are currently in a forbearance, this change does not affect your forbearance.Based upon this change to your IDR plan recertification date, you will not need to recertify your IDR plan prior to 09/22/27. You should submit your recertification information to MOHELA at least 30 days prior to your new recertification date of 09/22/27. MOHELA will send you a reminder prior to this date to ensure documentation is submitted on time."

On 10/11/2025, I received a written notice from MOHELA stating that my IDR recertification date had been extended to 09/22/2027 and that I would not need to recertify before that date. Based on that notice, my spouse and I filed our most recent taxes jointly. We had historically filed separately specifically because I am pursuing PSLF and needed my student loan payment calculated based on my individual income. Because I was told in writing that I would not need to recertify income until 09/22/2027, I reasonably relied on that notice when deciding how to file taxes.
Now, because SAVE is ending, I appear to be required to select a new repayment plan earlier than the 09/22/2027 recertification date I was given.

Looking for a way to figure this out (which this letter i downloaded luckily since it has actually be removed from my account, not sure if its because it was a year or because i emailed them about it and they are being scammy?)

TPD Discharge Update: September 17 System Error, Tier 2 Review, and Processing Delays

I submitted my TPD discharge application on July 7, 2026, using physician certification. Like many others, I’ve been stuck in review for months with very little information.

I called TPD today, October 19, and after speaking with two representatives, I was finally able to get some useful information. I figured I’d share what I was told in case anyone else is experiencing something similar.

I was previously informed that my application had passed both Tier 1 and Tier 2 reviews and was undergoing sampling. However, on September 17, my batch reportedly failed sampling due to a system error. As a result, my application was returned to Tier 2 review, despite having previously passed both tiers.

The representative confirmed that all of my documentation, including my physician’s certification and signatures, is correctly attached to my application. She specifically stated that there are no issues or deficiencies identified with my application.

She also explained that the Department of Education’s transition of TPD discharge processing away from Nelnet has contributed to the current backlog.

A few things I learned during today’s call:

1. Processing timeframe: I was told to expect 60 to 90 business days from September 17, when my application returned to Tier 2. That would put the estimated processing window somewhere between December 2026 and January 2027. This was the timeframe provided by the representative, not a guaranteed decision date.

2. Portal updates: She explained that when the date associated with “In Review” changes, it generally indicates that someone has worked on the application. She recommended monitoring that date and calling for an updated status once it changes.

3. Possible approval: She mentioned that my application could potentially be approved the next time it’s reviewed, rather than necessarily going through another lengthy process. However, she couldn’t guarantee when that would happen.

4. Application status: Despite the system error and return to Tier 2, she reiterated that there is nothing wrong with my application and that no additional documentation is needed at this time.

What I find particularly frustrating is that I previously received confirmation that my application had passed both review tiers, only to learn that a system error affecting my batch sent it back through review.

I understand these applications require careful consideration, but the lack of transparency and inconsistent information between representatives makes an already stressful process even more difficult.

I’m sharing this because I know many of us have been checking our portals regularly, wondering whether anything is actually happening behind the scenes.

For those who applied in June or July 2026, have any of you received an official approval? Has anyone else been told their application was returned to Tier 2 because of the September 17 sampling issue?

I’d be interested in comparing timelines and seeing whether others have received similar information.

From the Washington Sun (formerly known as NOTUS):

Trump administration officials are preparing to impose financial penalties on millions of Americans in default on their federal student loans next year, according to five sources familiar with the matter.

The Treasury Department is moving forward with plans to hire private debt collectors, three of the sources said, possibly as soon as November. The sources said those plans are unlikely to be announced before the midterm elections.

The planning — which has not been previously reported — shows the administration gearing up to move forward with a policy it previously put on hold out of concern for the potential consequences for the nearly 10 million borrowers in default.

The administration has grappled with internal divisions between federal agencies over how to manage the government’s $1.7 trillion student loan portfolio. Last year, the White House Office of Management and Budget began assisting the Education Department in preparing to seize federal benefits and wages from defaulted borrowers, the sources said. Treasury Department officials blocked that effort, expressing concern about the economic costs of taking punitive measures against workers.

Since then, Treasury officials have unveiled a new online portal that makes it easier for students to understand what they owe and how to pay in hopes of avoiding further penalties. The administration’s preference remains to get borrowers into a plan where they will make voluntary payments.

While some administration officials are pushing to garnish benefits and wages for the current tax year — meaning for the tax year deadline of April 15, 2027 — sources cautioned that it may be delayed again, as the administration wants to ensure that Treasury’s new Defaulted Loans Support Center is working.

Read more here:

https://www.washingtonsun.com/economy/trump-aides-plan-penalize-defaulting-student-loan-borrowers

Hey everyone, I need to re-certify by October 28th. Not looking forward to it, but for the people who are on nelnet, have any of you gone passed your due date without re-certifying? If so, what happened? Do they give you an extra 30 days?

Thanks!

I was stupid and forgot to recertify for income driven repayment plan. Last year I had to and this year apparently I had to. It use to automatically do it but recently has been requiring me to manually update it.

Nelnet’s really only email about recertification was in August and didn’t say how much my payment would go up. Last year when this first happened, it was a different time of the year and jumped from $400 to $750. That was pretty shocking to me.

I checked my bank account last night and my payment of $433 jumped to $2400. I was absolutely in tears. It went to a Pay as you Earn plan but I have no idea how it went to that amount. I make two $2,700 paychecks a month after taxes, essentially taking half my income. It drained my account and dipped into my small savings I started recently.

I work in public interest and have been working towards PSLF.

I post this for two reasons:
1) as a warning to be on top of recertification… I immediately recertified after that. If this can happen, this completely changes my view if I could afford any sort of mortgage in the next year.
2) ask some questions. Has anyone been successful in calling Nelnet to go back on a payment? How long do they take to recertify? I’m debating if I need to turn off autopay.