Key Points
- The Education Department reports 802,730 income-driven repayment (IDR) applications pending as of November 30, down from earlier peaks.
- Processing activity resumed after the shutdown, but many November figures are estimates, not final counts.
- Public Service Loan Forgiveness buyback requests have increased to 80,210.
The Department of Education has filed its first status report (PDF File) since the government shutdown in response to its lawsuit with the American Federation of Teachers. The report offers a snapshot of how income-driven repayment and Public Service Loan Forgiveness backlogs are moving — and where they remain stuck.
The report filed on December 15, 2025 in federal court was delayed by the October–November government shutdown and covers activity through the end of November. It follows a series of monthly disclosures required by the court after borrower advocates sued, alleging widespread delays and failures in student loan forgiveness processing. The previous report was filed back in September.
The new filing shows that while application processing has picked back up, hundreds of thousands of borrowers are still waiting for decisions about changing repayment plans, and the backlog of those waiting for PSLF buyback has continued to grow.
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IDR Processing Backlog
According to the status report, the Education Department and its loan servicers decided 245,441 IDR applications in November, exceeding the estimated 157,408 new applications received that month. That imbalance helped bring the total pending IDR applications down to 802,730 as of November 30.
Compared with August 2025 (the last report available), it's down from the 1,076,266 waiting to be processed.
The department also reported just 170 IDR loan discharges during November, all under the older Income-Based Repayment plan. No discharges were processed under Pay As You Earn or Income-Contingent Repayment during the month. The Department of Education said that it anticipates restarting loan forgiveness under other IDR plans in February 2026.
The Department of Justice (DOJ), who prepared the filing, cautioned that discharge counts do not align neatly with application decisions, because borrowers are given a two-month window to opt out of forgiveness after being notified.
PSLF Buyback Update
The report also updates progress on Public Service Loan Forgiveness Buyback, a process that allows borrowers to retroactively purchase missed qualifying months.
As of November 30:
- 80,210 PSLF Buyback applications were pending
- 3,960 applications were estimated to have been received in November
- 2,960 applications were decided
- 280 PSLF discharges occurred during the month
The department noted that many PSLF discharges authorized in October were not completed until early December and therefore are not reflected in the November totals - again because of the opt-out window.
Even with that caveat, the pending Buyback count underscores how slowly this program is moving relative to demand. In August 2025, there were 74,510 PSLF buyback applications waiting to be processed - and that number has only grown.
At the pace the Department is processing PSLF buyback, borrowers could be waiting over two years. It makes you wonder if PSLF buyback is even worth it?
This Month's Status Report Is Estimated
One of the most important details in the report is that some November figures are not final counts.
Because of logistical disruptions during the government shutdown, the Education Department could not provide confirmed data on how many IDR and PSLF Buyback applications were received in November. Instead, the Justice Department supplied estimates using changes in pending totals and decisions made.
The department says it expects to resume reporting “hard numbers” beginning with December data.
For borrowers, this means November should be read as a update, not a precise accounting. Any apparent acceleration or slowdown could shift once verified data is released.
Correction To Earlier Status Report
The filing also corrects a significant error in the earlier August status report, reducing the apparent backlog for that month by more than 300,000 applications.
The department acknowledged that it had failed to count 327,955 procedural denials: applications where borrowers selected “the plan with the lowest monthly payment” instead of a specific IDR repayment plan. After courts blocked the SAVE plan, that choice became ambiguous, and the Department of Education could not process these applications.
Once those denials were properly classified as “decided,” August totals changed substantially:
- Applications decided in August rose to 633,596, from 305,641 previously reported
- Applications pending as of August 31 fell to 748,311, from more than 1.07 million
This correction helps clear some of the backlog - but it also shows that it has built back up slightly since then.
An Insight Into IDR Tracking
In new insights, the Education Department provided an overview of how it identifies borrowers who qualify for IDR forgiveness.
The department confirmed that it does not run a centralized review to determine when borrowers reach forgiveness thresholds. Instead:
- Loan servicers track qualifying months and report them to the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS)
- NSLDS checks forgiveness eligibility irregularly
- At present, only Income-Based Repayment accounts are automatically checked
- Other IDR plans are not yet fully programmed into the system
Officials said the system is expected to begin checking all IDR plans on a regular, every-other-month basis starting in February 2026.
Until then, borrowers who qualify for forgiveness may face delays, and may have to continue making payments even after crossing the threshold. The department reiterated that excess payments are refunded once discharges are processed.
Also, when it comes to the potential tax bomb - the date that matters for taxes is when you pass the threshold, not when the forgiveness is actually processed.
What Borrowers Need To Know
For borrowers navigating IDR or PSLF right now, the latest report offers a mixed picture.
Processing has resumed after the shutdown, and the IDR repayment plan backlog is shrinking in aggregate. At the same time, the PSLF buyback backlog continues to grow.
Borrowers who believe they have reached forgiveness thresholds should continue monitoring their accounts and maintain documentation of qualifying payments. It's also essential that these borrowers are enrolled in IBR, ICR, or PAYE - not SAVE, as the recent SAVE settlement confirms that time-based loan forgiveness will not be processed for those in SAVE.
Given that nearly 7 million borrowers will need to leave SAVE, and at the peak the Department of Education only processed 305,641 applications (back in August), it's fair to say that this transition will take time.
The court-ordered reports provide transparency, but it's also clear that progress is incremental, not immediate.
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Editor: Colin Graves
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.