Lower student loan bills may be coming - even for high earners

"The U.S. Department of Education is working to update its system to implement the updates to the IBR Plan and said it anticipates that those changes will be completed this month. "In the meantime, servicers will hold IBR applications that would otherwise be denied. servicers will process those applications after the system changes are completed," the Department said in an update from last month. "We encourage borrowers who applied for the IBR Plan and were denied due to lack of partial financial hardship before we instructed servicers to hold these applications to reapply.""

"That said, borrowers who are freshly eligible for the IBR Plan may have to wait several more months before they start to receive their new monthly payments. That's because the Department has pegged July 1, 2026 as the date when borrowers who have eligible loans can access the IBR and the date when there will be no restrictions on enrolling in IBR."

Eligibility for the Income-Based Repayment (IBR) Plan has been expanded to include more borrowers, including higher earners, through a provision in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Borrowers may switch to IBR even without partial financial hardship. The Department of Education is updating its system to implement the changes and expects completion this month. Servicers will hold IBR applications that would otherwise be denied and will process them after the system update; borrowers who were denied earlier are encouraged to reapply. The Department set July 1, 2026 as the date when eligible borrowers can access IBR without restrictions. The Department is also scrapping three other repayment plans, including SAVE and ICR.

Read at Fast Company