What is an Income Driven Repayment Plan (IDR)?

As of February 27th, 2025, The Department of Education has temporarily removed the option to enroll in an Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) Plan, or recertify their current plan, from the StudentAid.gov website.

Because of this, borrowers applying for an IDR should expect significantly longer processing times. Savi is working to determine exactly how this decision will impact borrowers, and we'll provide more updates as soon as they're available and an official announcement is made.

You are still encouraged to submit your IDR application through your Savi account.  This way, if there are any policy changes in the future, we will still have your application on file, so you will not have to redo any forms, Savi will handle that for you. For borrowers who are already on the PAYE, ICR or IBR plan, this does not affect you as you are already enrolled. 

Please note, this does not affect or apply to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. Borrowers are still able to submit Employer Certification Forms (ECF) for credit towards forgiveness and employers should still sign forms. 

An Income-Driven Repayment Plan, or IDR, is an umbrella term for four different repayment plans available through the Department of Education.

 

The four different repayment plans that fall under the IDR umbrella are as follows:

1. Pay As You Earn (PAYE): 
2. SAVE: 
3. Income-Based Repayment (IBR): 
4. Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR)

 

Each repayment plan option under the IDR umbrella are available to federal student loan borrowers who may show financial stress in comparison to their loan debt. Each IDR is evaluated using your income, household size, the state you live in, and the type of loans you have.

 

For more in-depth details on each plan, view this article: https://bysavi.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360055588214-Which-Repayment-Plan-is-best-for-me 

 

These are also the only repayment plans eligible for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) opportunity. If you are planning to apply for PSLF, you must be on an IDR first. The Savi tool identifies all of the best loan repayment programs available to you and provides you with the information you need in order to make an informed decision.