学生贷款借款人无法申请可负担的还款计划
【中美创新时报2025 年 3 月 2 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）美国教育部正在审查最近的联邦法院裁决，联邦学生贷款借款人暂时无法申请收入驱动的还款计划，这是一个已有数十年历史的安全网，将他们的每月贷款还款额与家庭收入水平挂钩。《纽约时报》记者塔拉·西格尔·伯纳德对此作了下述报道。
在美国第八巡回上诉法院维持并扩大了对“有价值的教育储蓄计划”（称为 SAVE）的暂时中止后，该部门于 2 月底关闭了还款计划的申请。
该收入驱动计划是拜登政府政策议程的核心，有 800 万名借款人参与，其还款额低于之前的计划。由于成本高昂，SAVE 去年春天成为两组共和党领导的州提出的两项独立法律挑战的目标，这些州认为拜登政府超越了其权限。
自那以后，SAVE 计划一直处于法律悬而未决的状态，参与者的付款自去年夏天以来一直处于暂停状态。但上周，其他三个收入驱动计划的申请也被撤下——这些较旧的计划没有受到任何诉讼。这实际上关闭了陷入财务困境的借款人获得更实惠计划的大门，并取消了参与公共服务贷款减免计划所需的一个关键组成部分——至少是暂时的。
教育部发言人周四表示：“该部门正在审查还款申请，以符合第八巡回法院的裁决。”他补充说，该部门更新了 StudentAid.gov 上借款人的信息，包括有关与 SAVE 相关的法庭诉讼的页面。
以下是我们现在知道的情况：
刚刚发生了什么？
第八巡回上诉法院维持了美国密苏里州东区地方法院对部分 SAVE 计划的临时禁令。上诉法院将案件发回地方法院，指示将初步禁令扩大到整个 SAVE 规则（尽管其他法律裁决已经暂时中止了该计划）。
但上诉法院并没有就此止步：法官还表示，教育部部长没有明确的权力在任何收入分期偿还计划中给予贷款减免，尽管这种做法已经实行了三十多年。（借款人每月支付的金额相当于其可支配收入的一定百分比，这在收入驱动计划中有所不同。但在一定年限（通常为 20 至 25 年）后，任何剩余余额都会被取消。）
“这与近 30 年来对该法规的解释和执行方式大相径庭，”研究和倡导组织大学入学与成功研究所的大学负担能力高级主管 Michele Zampini 表示。
教育部在其网站上张贴了一条横幅，称禁令阻止其管理 SAVE 和其他部分收入驱动计划——因此，这些计划和在线贷款合并的申请都无法使用。
国家消费者法律中心学生贷款借款人援助项目主任 Abby Shafroth 表示，重要的是要记住，该决定并非最终决定，诉讼仍在继续。“但对于依赖 SAVE 计划来管理还款并努力摆脱债务的借款人来说，这一决定非常令人担忧，”她说。
接下来可能会发生什么？
行业组织学生贷款服务联盟的执行董事 Scott Buchanan 表示，他预计至少一项收入驱动计划（称为基于收入的还款）的申请将“尽快”再次开放。
原因很复杂：这是因为基于收入的还款计划是作为 2009 年 7 月法律的一部分创建的，该法律明确允许在还款期结束时取消贷款，而 SAVE 是该部门根据 1993 年法律建立的权力制定的法规。最初提起诉讼的州辩称，1993 年法律并未明确允许取消贷款，上诉法院支持这种解释。
但该部门依靠该权力创建了另外三个收入驱动计划，均在 SAVE 之前，每个计划都逐步改进了之前的计划。它们是 1994 年推出的收入分期偿还计划；2012 年推出的按收入还款 (PAYE)；以及 2015 年推出并被 SAVE 取代的修订版按收入还款 (REPAYE)。
现在正在处理收入驱动型贷款申请吗？
不，根据 Buchanan 的说法，所有申请都已暂时停止。他说，服务商已收到指示，要求停止处理收入驱动型和贷款合并型申请三个月，但他预计他们将在未来几周收到更多指导。
其他现有的收入驱动型计划（基于收入的还款、按收入还款和收入分期还款）的每月还款仍在收取，而 SAVE 借款人在诉讼继续期间仍处于无息宽限期。
公共服务贷款减免计划是否仍然有效？
是的，它仍然对政府和非营利组织的员工开放，例如公立学校教师、图书管理员和公设辩护人。在支付 120 笔合格款项后，任何剩余余额都将被取消。
但有一个主要障碍：大多数借款人需要加入收入驱动的还款计划才有资格取消贷款，而目前无法申请任何这些计划。
但是，如果您已经加入了合格的还款计划，并且您又有资格参加公共服务计划（例如，因为有了新工作），您仍然可以加入。但如果您加入了 SAVE 计划，由于正在进行的诉讼，该计划的付款已被暂停，您的合格付款也被搁置——并且您无法在免除贷款方面取得任何进展。
乔治·W·布什总统于 2007 年签署成为法律的公共服务计划目前没有风险，学生贷款专家表示，并没有广泛的兴趣取消这个受欢迎的计划，这需要国会通过一项法案。
如果我即将支付公共服务计划中的所有款项，但我被困在 SAVE 计划中，该怎么办？
有超过 200 万人参加了公共服务计划，其中数十万人即将完成贷款：根据教育部联邦学生援助办公室的数据，截至 12 月 31 日，约有 21,700 名借款人已支付足够的款项，有资格取消贷款，而 330,100 名借款人已支付 97 至 119 笔符合条件的款项。
参加 SAVE 计划且已支付足够资格款项的借款人几乎没有好的选择。
“被困在 SAVE 中的借款人可以等待 IDR 申请重新开放，然后转到另一个 IDR 计划，”为借款人提供免费指导的组织学生贷款顾问协会主席 Betsy Mayotte 表示。“或者，度过 SAVE 宽限期，并计划在他们获得 120 个月的合格就业证明后，使用所谓的‘回购’来获得这些月份的贷款。”
如果我无力还款（因为失业或其他原因），我有什么选择？
除了收入驱动的还款计划外，还有其他选择，通常可以通过您的贷款服务商或管理您付款的公司提出申请。借款人可以通过延期或宽限期暂时暂停付款，但这些计划的资格要求和后果不同，主要是因为利息的处理方式不同。
“借款人可以因经济困难或失业等原因获得延期，”Mayotte 说。“宽限期通常适用于不太具体的经济困难。”
还有其他还款计划可以降低您的每月义务：分期还款，即付款从较低开始，随着时间的推移而增加，以及延长还款期，通过延长贷款期限来降低每月还款额。
简单地合并您的贷款也可以通过延长还款期限来降低您的每月还款额，但也有缺点。您的所有债务的利率可能会更高，最终您将支付更多。
如果我无法重新认证我的贷款，我会受到惩罚吗？
每年，参加收入驱动还款计划的借款人必须重新认证他们的收入，否则将面临负面后果，包括被踢出还款计划。但这些申请目前也不可用。
布坎南说，目前，这不是您需要担心的事情。贷款服务商已被指示逐月推迟这些截止日期，当他们从教育部获得更多明确信息时，他们将与借款人联系。
本文最初发表于《纽约时报》。
题图：2024 年 11 月 19 日，华盛顿教育部总部。ROD LAMKEY JR./NYT
附原英文报道：
Student loan borrowers blocked from affordable repayment plans
By Tara Siegel Bernard New York Times,Updated March 1, 2025
The Department of Education headquarters in Washington, on Nov. 19, 2024.ROD LAMKEY JR./NYT
Federal student loan borrowers are temporarily unable to apply to income-driven repayment plans, a decades-old safety net that ties their monthly loan-payment size to household income levels, as the U.S. Education Department reviews a recent federal court ruling.
The department closed applications to the repayment plans in late February after the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld and expanded a temporary suspension of the Saving on a Valuable Education plan, known as SAVE.
That income-driven program, a centerpiece of the Biden administration’s policy agenda with 8 million enrolled borrowers, generated lower payments than previous plans. Given its high cost, SAVE became the target of two separate legal challenges last spring by two groups of Republican-led states, which argued that the Biden administration had overstepped its authority.
The SAVE plan has been in legal limbo ever since, and participants’ payments have been on hold since last summer. But last week, applications to the three other income-driven plans were also taken down — older programs that hadn’t been subject to any litigation. That effectively shut the door to more affordable plans for borrowers in financial distress, and eliminated a crucial component needed to participate in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program — at least temporarily.
“The department is reviewing repayment applications to conform with the 8th Circuit’s ruling,” a spokesperson for the Education Department said Thursday, adding that it updated information for borrowers on StudentAid.gov, including on a page about court actions related to SAVE.
Here’s what we know now:
What just happened?
The 8th Circuit upheld a temporary ban on a portion of the SAVE plan issued by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. The appeals court sent the case back to the district court with instructions to expand the preliminary injunction to the entire SAVE rule (although other legal rulings had already temporarily suspended the program).
But the appellate court didn’t stop there: The judges also said the Education Department secretary lacks the explicit authority to grant loan forgiveness in any Income-Contingent Repayment plans, even though it has been done for more than three decades. (Borrowers make monthly payments equal to a percentage of their discretionary income, which varies across income-driven plans. But after a set number of years, usually 20 to 25, any remaining balance is canceled.)
“This is a radical departure from how this statute has been interpreted and administered for nearly 30 years,” said Michele Zampini, senior director of college affordability at the Institute for College Access and Success, a research and advocacy group.
The Education Department posted a banner on its website that said the injunction prevents it from administering SAVE and parts of other income-driven plans — and, as a result, applications for those plans and online loan consolidations were unavailable.
It is important to remember that the decision is not final and that litigation is continuing, said Abby Shafroth, director of the National Consumer Law Center’s Student Loan Borrower Assistance Project. “But the decision is very worrying for borrowers who depend on the SAVE plan to manage their payments and work toward being debt free,” she said.
What’s likely to happen next?
Scott Buchanan, executive director of the Student Loan Servicing Alliance, an industry group, said he would expect that applications for at least one of the income-driven plans, known as income-based repayment, will become available again “as soon as practical.”
The reasons are complicated: That’s because the income-based repayment plan was created as part of a July 2009 law, which explicitly permits loan cancellation at the end of the repayment term, whereas SAVE was a regulation established by the department using authority established under a 1993 law. The states that initially brought the lawsuit argued that loan cancellation wasn’t explicitly permitted under the 1993 law, and the appellate court sided with that interpretation.
But the department has relied on that authority to create three other income-driven programs, all before SAVE, each of which incrementally improved on the plans before it. They were Income-Contingent Repayment, introduced in 1994; Pay As You Earn (PAYE), introduced in 2012; and Revised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE), which became available in 2015 and was replaced by SAVE.
Are income-driven loan applications being processed now?
No, all applications have been temporarily halted, according to Buchanan. He said the servicers have received instructions to stop processing the income-driven and loan-consolidation applications for three months, but he expected they will receive additional guidance in the coming weeks.
Monthly payments are still being collected on the other existing income-driven plans (Income-Based Repayment, Pay As You Earn and Income-Contingent Repayment) while SAVE borrowers remain in an interest-free forbearance while the litigation continues.
Is the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program still available?
Yes, it is still open to government and nonprofit employees such as public schoolteachers, librarians and public defenders. After 120 qualifying payments are made, any remaining balance is wiped out.
But there is one major obstruction: Most borrowers need to be enrolled in an income-driven repayment plan to be eligible for loan cancellation, and it’s not possible to apply to any of those plans right now.
If you’re already in a qualifying repayment plan, however, and you become newly eligible for the public service program (because of a new job, for example), you can still enroll. But if you’re in the SAVE plan, where payments have been halted because of the ongoing litigation, your qualifying payments have also been put on hold — and you can’t make any progress toward forgiveness.
The public service program, which President George W. Bush signed into law in 2007, is not at risk right now, and student-loan experts say there isn’t a broad appetite dismantle the popular program, which would require Congress to pass a bill.
What if I’m close to making all of my payments in the public service program, but I am stuck in the SAVE plan?
More than 2 million people are enrolled in the public service program and hundreds of thousands of them are approaching the finish line: About 21,700 borrowers have made enough payments to qualify for cancellation, while 330,100 had made 97 to 119 qualifying payments as of Dec. 31, according to data from the Education Department’s Federal Student Aid office.
Borrowers who are enrolled in the SAVE plan and have nearly enough qualifying payments have few good options.
“Borrowers stuck in SAVE can either wait for the IDR applications to open back up and switch to another IDR plan,” said Betsy Mayotte, president of the Institute of Student Loan Advisors, a group that provides free guidance to borrowers. “Or ride out the SAVE forbearance and plan on using what’s called ‘buyback’ to get credit for those months once they have certified 120 months of eligible employment.”
What are my options if I can’t afford payments (because I lost my job or some other reason)?
There are other options besides income-driven repayment plans that can generally be requested through your loan servicer or the company that manages your payments. Borrowers can temporarily pause payments through deferments or forbearance, but those programs have different eligibility requirements and consequences, largely because of the way interest is treated.
“Borrowers can receive deferments for things such as economic hardship or being unemployed,” said Mayotte. “Forbearances are generally applied in cases of less specific financial hardship.”
There are other repayment plans that can lower your monthly obligation: graduated repayment, where payments start lower and rise over time, and extended repayment, which lowers the monthly payment by lengthening the loan term.
Simply consolidating your loans can also lower your monthly payments by extending the repayment period, but there are drawbacks. You may have a higher interest rate on all of your debt, and you’ll end up paying more overall.
Will I be penalized if I cannot recertify my loans?
Each year, borrowers enrolled in income-driven repayment plans must recertify their income or face negative consequences, including being kicked out of the repayment plan. But those applications are also not available right now.
For now, it’s not something you need to worry about, Buchanan said. The loan servicers have been instructed to push back those deadlines on a month-by-month basis, and they will be in touch with borrowers when they receive more clarity from the Education Department.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
