Student Borrower Protection Center Urges All Borrowers to Head to Federal Student Aid Account and Document Payment Count Updates
January 16, 2025 | WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) announced the final phase of the Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) Account Adjustment and has started updating borrower payment counts on borrowers’ Federal Student Aid dashboard. Providing borrowers with their official payment count will help borrowers receive the credit they have earned towards cancellation under IDR, and ensure that all borrowers who have been forced to pay for 20 years or longer are automatically able to benefit from relief they are entitled to under federal law. ED also announced its final round of student loan cancellation, approving more than $600 million for 4,550 borrowers through the Income-Based Repayment plan and 4,100 individual borrower defense approvals.
“For too long, millions of borrowers have been paying into a system that has not recognized their efforts. Now, thanks to this IDR Account Adjustment update and other Biden-Harris Administration efforts to fix this long-broken system, borrowers will finally receive the credit they’ve earned and be one step closer to relief,” said Persis Yu, SBPC Deputy Executive Director and Managing Counsel. “Providing borrowers with their payment counts is a critical step to ensuring they actually receive that relief. It gives borrowers the tools to hold servicers and the federal government accountable if they fail to deliver on the relief borrowers are entitled to under the law. As we head into a time of uncertainty, we urge all borrowers to screenshot this new count and save it in their records.”
Background
After years of SBPC and partners documenting the failure of servicers to deliver the promise of IDR, ED announced the IDR Account Adjustment in April 2022, which retroactively credits borrowers for months in repayment, including those who were victims of servicing failures, misinformation, or placed in the wrong repayment plan. Today marks the final step in the IDR Account Adjustment and ensures that those seeking Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) or relief under IDR will now have their prior time in repayment counted toward relief.
The Biden-Harris Administration has now also approved $183.6 billion in student debt discharges via the Administration’s various student debt relief fixes and programs. This relief has now reached over 5 million borrowers and includes new approvals for PSLF relief, borrower defense relief, and Total and Permanent Disability Discharge relief.
Previously, many borrowers—including those who work in public service jobs and low-income borrowers struggling to afford their payments—were steered into costly deferments and forbearance, preventing them from reaching the 20 years or longer for IDR relief or the 120 payments necessary for PSLF cancellation. Under the IDR Account Adjustment, these periods are now counted, even if borrowers were mistakenly placed in the wrong repayment plan or faced servicing errors. With today’s update, the IDR Account Adjustment payment counts are available to borrowers on their dashboards on studentaid.gov.
Further Reading
SBPC press release on Biden admin beginning to discharge via IDR AA: Biden Administration to Automatically Cancel Student Debt for 804,000 Borrowers Via Long Awaited Income-Driven Repayment Account Adjustment
Jane Fox, SBPC blog on impact of IDR AA on Parent PLUS borrowers: Changes to the IDR Account Adjustment Mean Good News for Parent PLUS Borrowers Seeking PSLF
SBPC and NCLC blog highlighting new revelations of mismanagement and abuse compromising the student loan safety net: Explosive New Evidence of Mismanagement of Student Loan Program Shows Need for IDR Waiver
SBPC blog on how Navient’s settlement with 39 state attorneys general shows system-wide breakdowns needing substantive IDR changes to fix: Navient’s Settlement Shows Why the Biden Administration Must Take Bold Action to Fix Income-Driven Repayment
SBPC, NCLC, and CRL IDR Waiver proposal to Biden Administration to fix broken IDR system: The System is Broken: 100+ Organizations Urge Biden Administration to Aid Millions of Student Loan Borrowers with Overdue Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) Reforms
SBPC statement in response to IDR AA announcement: Education Department Announces Major Effort to Repair Student Loan Safety Net, Deliver Debt Relief for Millions of Low-Income People with Student Debt
SBPC urges ED to improve IDR AA: Biden Administration’s Sweeping IDR Changes Will Provide Much-Needed Relief for Many, but Still Leave Behind Graduate and Parent PLUS Borrowers
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About Student Borrower Protection Center
Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC) is a nonprofit organization focused on eliminating the burden of student debt for millions of Americans. We engage in advocacy, policymaking, and litigation strategy to rein in industry abuses, protect borrowers’ rights, and advance racial and economic justice.
Learn more at protectborrowers.org or follow SBPC on Twitter @theSBPC.