Key Points
- Both the online and paper applications for income-driven repayment plans is available again after a temporary pause.
- The revised paper application no longer includes the Biden Administration’s SAVE plan, which remains blocked by the 8th Circuit injunction.
- Borrowers can apply for IBR, PAYE, and ICR plans, but SAVE remains inaccessible while legal challenges continue.
The paper application that allows borrowers to enroll in income-driven repayment (IDR) plans quietly returned online to the Forms Library after being unavailable for several months. The U.S. Department of Education had taken it down to comply with a court order that blocked further implementation of President Biden’s Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan, leaving millions of borrowers in limbo.
The newly posted IDR plan application now omits SAVE entirely. That means borrowers can once again apply for IDR, but their choices are limited to Income-Based Repayment (IBR), Pay As You Earn (PAYE), and Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR).
The SAVE plan had become the most popular IDR option since launching last year, promising lower monthly payments and faster forgiveness. Now, it’s on pause as a result of the injunction issued by the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals.
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Court Order Blocked Repayment Options
The injunction, issued in response to lawsuits brought by Republican-led states, directed the Department of Education to stop implementing SAVE and parts of other IDR plans. The court sided with arguments that the administration overstepped its authority in how the plan was structured under the Higher Education Act. The injunction threw the status of student loan repayment into uncertainty almost overnight.
Because the existing IDR application at StudentAid.gov incorporated the SAVE plan, the Department said it had to be pulled offline to be revised. The key issue was question #2, which allowed borrowers to choose a "Recommended" plan - which could have been SAVE, or SAVE directly. Both of those options were problematic.
The new PDF form is now available online, and question #2 now looks like this (with SAVE omitted):
We knew that SAVE was effectively dead, but this confirms it.
What Is Still Available For Borrowers?
Student loan borrowers can use the updated online application or the new paper application to enroll in:
- Income-Based Repayment (IBR): Monthly payments capped at 15% or 10% of discretionary income, depending on loan date.
- Pay As You Earn (PAYE): Monthly payments capped at 10% of discretionary income, with forgiveness after 20 years.
- Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR): The oldest IDR option, with payments based on 20% of discretionary income and forgiveness after 25 years.
What’s missing is the SAVE plan, which allowed borrowers earning less than 225% of the federal poverty level to pay $0 per month, subsidized all unpaid interest, and offered faster forgiveness timelines.
Roughly 8 million borrowers had enrolled in SAVE since its launch - the most of any income driven repayment plan. Many are now uncertain what this means for their repayment going forward.
Source: Student Loan Statistics
Political And Legal Uncertainty
The removal of SAVE from the IDR application underscores the fragile state of federal student loan policy under a divided government and an active federal court system.
While Democrats in the Senate have proposed the SOAR Act to codify and expand the SAVE plan, that bill is unlikely to advance with Republicans controlling both the House and Senate. Meanwhile, Republicans have proposed their own bill (the College Cost Reduction Act) which would eliminate most income-driven repayment options altogether.
The Department of Education has not said whether current SAVE enrollees will be removed from the plan or grandfathered in. Borrowers currently enrolled in SAVE are in administrative forbearance pending the outcome of the case.
It's likely that forbearance will continue until the fall, or even into 2026, as even when the court cases are resolved, the Department of Education will have to make new rules to deal with the 8 million SAVE borrowers.
What To Expect Moving Forward
For now, anyone looking to enroll in SAVE for the first time is out of luck. Borrowers must choose from among the older IDR options, none of which offer the same terms.
The SAVE plan remains legally blocked and the future for borrowers already enrolled is uncertain.
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Robert Farrington is the founder of The College Investor and is widely recognized as one of the nation’s leading voices on student loan debt and saving for college. He holds an MBA from UC San Diego Rady School of Management and has spent over 15 years researching, writing, and advising on student loans, 529 plans, financial aid programs, and saving and investing for young professionals.
Robert has been featured in the The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, NBC News, and Forbes, where he has been a regular personal finance contributor for over a decade. His work combines both professional expertise and personal experience – he successfully navigated his own student loan repayment journey and has helped thousands of readers do the same.
He is committed to making the intersection of personal finance and education transparent and accessible. You can learn more about Robert on the About Page or on his personal site RobertFarrington.com.