Department Of Education Removes New Student Loan Forgiveness Tracker For Some Borrowers

The Department of Education appears to have removed a key new feature of the StudentAid.gov website that has allowed borrowers to track their student loan forgiveness progress. The removal comes just days after advocacy organizations issued urgent warnings to borrowers to screenshot their data.

In January, the Biden administration published the long-awaited IDR payment tracker for borrowers in income-driven repayment plans. IDR plans are programs authorized by Congress that feature affordable payments tied to a borrower’s family size and income, with the possibility student loan forgiveness after 20 or 25 years in repayment. The IDR payment tracker displays key information about a borrower’s IDR status including their qualifying payment count, how much time they have remaining on their 20- or 25-year student loan forgiveness term, and a month-by-month breakdown of eligible and ineligible payments. Until the IDR tracker went live, borrowers had no easy way to determine where they stood on their IDR term.

The apparent removal of the IDR payment tracker now leaves borrowers with fewer tools to determine their options, as the federal student loan repayment system remains in turmoil.

Student Loan Forgiveness Tracker For IDR Apparently Removed

“This IDR progress tracker could be removed at any time,” warned the National Consumer Law Center in a blog post last week urging borrowers to screenshot their StudentAid.gov dashboards reflecting their IDR status and student loan forgiveness progress. By Sunday, borrowers were already reporting on Reddit that the Department of Education had removed the IDR tracker.

“I think this has started,” said one Reddit user. “There was a change on my dashboard that I have not seen since the IDR payment counter was introduced in January. I was able to see it for two days when it was released, and then it, along with my entire loan history, disappeared. There was an IDR count widget but no numbers. It’s been that way until today. Now I see my loans again, but no loan history – in other words, the part of the widget that shows what payments qualify for forgiveness and what payments do not – and now the IDR count widget is completely gone.”

“Mine is gone as well as of this morning,” said another Reddit user. Been in repayment since ’95 and should only have about 2 payments left with the IDR adjustment. I am not feeling great about it either.”

“I just checked and mine is gone as well, said another. “Hope it’s short term.”

Other student loan borrowers and advocates have similarly reported that the IDR tracker has disappeared from StudentAid.gov. It is not entirely clear at this point whether all borrowers enrolled in IDR plans are being impacted, or just certain borrowers (such as those who were enrolled in the SAVE plan, which has since been blocked by a federal appeals court due to a legal challenge). However, the PSLF Tracker – which is a similar feature on StudentAid.gov dedicated to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program – appears to still be intact.

Removal Of Tracker Does Not Mean Removal Of Student Loan Forgiveness Data

The Department of Education’s apparent removal of the IDR tracker does not necessarily mean that IDR payment counts are being deleted. The IDR tracker is simply a visual display on a borrower’s StudentAid.gov dashboard that provides information on their student loan forgiveness progress. The data that feeds that tracker may not be impacted, even if the visual display is now gone.

There could be any number of reasons for the removal of the IDR tracker. These could include routine system maintenance, or it may be related to the ongoing legal battle over the SAVE plan. A federal appeals court in February issued a ruling expanding the injunction blocking the SAVE plan. The same court also questioned the legality of student loan forgiveness under the ICR and PAYE plans, which were established under the same statutory authority as the SAVE Plan was. As a result, the department has blocked student loan forgiveness under ICR, PAYE, and SAVE, while loan forgiveness under IBR remains available. It is unclear if the department has removed the IDR tracker for all borrowers currently enrolled in IDR plans, or just borrowers impacted by that recent court order.

The department has not issued a public statement about the removal of the IDR tracker. However, the department did update the webpage for the IDR Account Adjustment – the Biden-era initiative that culminated in the publication of IDR payment counts showing a borrower’s student loan forgiveness progress.

“Due to a court injunction affecting IDR plans, only loans enrolled in the Income-Based Repayment (IBR) Plan that have accumulated enough time for forgiveness are eligible to be forgiven,” says the updated website. “The forgiveness information presented on this page is not applicable to you unless you are enrolled in the IBR Plan.”

Removal Of Student Loan Forgiveness Tracker Comes As Many Borrowers Struggle With Repayment

Even if the underlying student loan forgiveness data that feeds the IDR tracker remains intact, advocacy groups have warned that the removal of the tracker deprives borrowers of key information as they try to navigate an ever-changing federal student loan repayment plan landscape.

“If the IDR progress tracker is removed from borrowers’ accounts, it will be much harder for borrowers to make informed decisions about how to manage their loans,” said the National Consumer Law Center in last week’s blog post. “For example, right now, if you consolidate your loans your consolidation loan will start with no months credited towards IDR forgiveness, regardless of how long you were in an IDR plan previously. Without the tracker, it will be difficult for borrowers to know how much time toward cancellation they stand to lose.”

Many borrowers pursuing student loan forgiveness through IDR plans remain stuck in limbo. After the court ruling issued earlier this year, more than eight million borrowers who had enrolled in the SAVE plan remain in an administrative forbearance. Nearly two million borrowers who have applied to enroll in an IDR plan or switch from SAVE to one of the other income-driven options have been unable to do so due to a Department of Education systemwide processing pause. The department is expected to resume processing IDR applications by early May, but advocates remain concerned about lengthy processing delays.