Own a business?
Student loan payment way up?
Make sure you are reporting your income correctly and qualify for the lowest income driven plan payment.
While the payment count was removed from the studentaid.gov site, there is a back door you can use to see how many years you have left on an IDR until your student loans are forgiven — if you call your servicer, who knows what answer you’ll get. If you use this hack, make sure to take a screen shot in case you’ll need later for some reason. You never know.
Step 1) Log in to studentaid.gov
Step 2) Open another browser tab and go to https://studentaid.gov/app/api/nslds/payment-counter/summary
Ever wonder what those little individual codes in the bottom-left corner mean on Mohela correspondence? Here’s what we’ve found so far:
| February Consumer Lunch
February 10, 2026
Attestation Process is Game Changer for Discharging Federal Student Loans
Christi Arkovich, Arkovich Law Bob Branson, Branson Law Tammy Branson, Branson Law
This CLE program explores the Department of Justice and Department of Education’s 2022 guidance that loosened the three-prong test for discharging student loans in bankruptcy through the new attestation process. Attendees will learn about how to analyze loan types and borrower eligibility, how to navigate the detailed attestation form, and borrowers who have successfully used the process. The program also covers how to file and handle these uniquely streamlined adversary proceedings—often resolved without litigation—key differences between bankruptcy schedule calculations and the attestation form, drafting consent final judgments, and practical considerations on fees, billing, and getting paid.
Consumer Lunches are no charge and via zoom. |
Major student loan changes are coming July 1, 2026. New borrowers will only have two repayment options — Standard or the new Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP). All other income-driven repayment plans (IBR, PAYE, SAVE) are being eliminated for new loans.
The Grad PLUS program is also being eliminated, and Parent PLUS loans are getting capped at $20,000 per year.
Anyone with a Parent Plus loan now — must have consolidation completed before July 2026 in order to obtain an income driven plan.
The new Income Driven Plan (“IDR”) set to roll out next summer on July 1, 2026 is called the Repayment Assistance Plan (“RAP”) for federal student loans.
The administration’s goal is to eliminate the choices and complexity of the present federal student loan repayment system. The old IBR, new IBR, ICR, PAYE and SAVE plans are all being terminated. Those legacy plans will exist for three more years until July 1, 2028. Thereafter, only those borrowers enrolled in non-RAP IDRs can remain in those plans. It appears that forgiveness will only occur for those enrolled in IBR or RAP. For instance, someone could remain in PAYE or ICR, but would need to switch to IBR or RAP for forgiveness.
What is RAP? RAP is an income driven plan going into effect next summer based upon a borrower’s adjusted gross income (“AGI”). It will offer a tiered payment plan:
Early October has many federal student loan borrowers receiving forgiveness emails for those whose backdoor trackers show 300+ qualifying payments, and enrollment in IBR. This suggests that the Department of Education (“ED”) ran an internal audit and submitted the most straightforward cases first. We anticipate more rounds of forgiveness emails in the future. Getting to 300 payments and enrollment in IBR is key.
We have to wait for the SAVE litigation to learn if a new process allowing for Income Driven Repayment credit for all debtors in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy will go into effect. It is presently enjoined as part of the SAVE litigation. Rather than penalizing a debtor by simply placing the debtor into an administrative forbearance with capitalized interest, the new Bankruptcy IDR will give a debtor a month of credit toward loan forgiveness for each month the debtor makes a required plan payment under a confirmed Chapter 13 plan. 34 C.F.R. § 685.209(k)(4)(iv)(K).
This program would be particularly valuable for those borrowers with high income who also have large mortgage debt or medical expenses which can be used to reduce disposable income in a bankruptcy to reduce or even eliminate a student loan payment. These types of expenses cannot be used to reduce an IDR payment outside of bankruptcy.
Debt collection in the U.S. operates within a framework of consumer protections using the Fair Debt Collection Practices (“FDCPA”), the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”) and the Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act (“UDTPA”). There are many more federal acts protecting against unlawfully high interest rates, fraudulent mortgage practices, deceptive banking practices etc. Plus, many states have state based consumer protections acts — Florida calls theirs the Florida Consumer Collection Practices Act (“FCCPA”).
Bankruptcy protections such as the automatic stay, the right to a partial or full discharge also play a significant role to protect a consumer. All of these laws don’t merely regulate behavior, they also define the boundaries of communication. For instance, a U.S. consumer must be told who is collecting the debt, how much is owed, and how to dispute it. Harassment or misrepresentation is strictly prohibited. Private attorneys act as mini attorneys general in that if a consumer wins, that consumer can obtain his or her attorney’s fees from the debt collector. That is what fuels a contingency case and tries to keep debt collectors honest.
How will an AI debt collector fit into this system? Almost certainly, an AI agent would be required to not only disclose that it is a debt collector, but also that it is an artificial intelligence system per the FDCPA. Not doing so, would likely be a false, deceptive or misleading representation which is prohibited by the FDCPA.
We believe that bankruptcy is becoming a major pathway to addressing student loan debt. It offers a guardrail – and a penalty for those seeking debt relief; the borrower has to file bankruptcy. Bankruptcy is outside the purview of ED requiring very little input from ED. It is simple in that a borrower does not have to spend hours on hold with their loan servicer only to be hung up on, or told different answers. A simple system run by an entity other than ED, apolitical, offering a guardrail and penalty for those seeking student loan debt relief fits the needs of a Trump administration.
Likewise, a borrower can benefit from having student loan debt addressed in bankruptcy. It’s non-political. You file an adversary action which ultimately results in a court order. That court order offers certainty in very uncertain times. There is no tax bomb for debt discharged in bankruptcy similar to that debt which is forgiven under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. Partial or full discharge of debt, significantly lower interest rates and payments for private loans, protection of co-borrowers – these are avenues for relief that are either not available or highly questionable outside of bankruptcy.
Reboot Your Life: Tampa Student Loan and Bankruptcy Attorney Blog