Federal student loan borrowers are reporting a new email from the Department of Education telling them their income-driven repayment application produced an incorrect monthly payment because of an error and that they have to submit an entirely new IDR application to fix it.
The email lands in the middle of the tightest deadline window borrowers have faced in years. The Department began sending 90-day notices to more than seven million SAVE plan borrowers on July 1, which puts the decision deadline for the first wave of them at September 29. Anyone forced to reapply is losing days they don't have.
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What The Email Says
- Borrowers who recently applied for IDR received an incorrect monthly payment amount "due to an error."
- They must submit a new application to enroll in the plan they want and get the correct payment.
- If a borrower never received notification from their servicer that the application was processed, it wasn't processed — it was canceled.
- Borrowers are directed to log in to StudentAid.gov and check "My Activity" to confirm status.
The catch: That third point is the one that will catch people. A canceled application doesn't necessarily announce itself. Borrowers who submitted paperwork and assumed silence meant processing may find nothing in the queue at all and no forbearance protecting them while they wait.
It echoes what happened to borrowers with pending SAVE requests, whose applications servicers began denying outright earlier this month.
The Bigger Picture
This isn't an isolated glitch. CNBC reported in June that the online IDR application was failing to display all plans a borrower qualified for, particularly PAYE, and was showing inaccurate monthly payment figures, by quoting $50 per month regardless of income.
Forbes contributor Adam Minksy documented additional failures, including miscalculated payments for married borrowers and prompts pushing people toward consolidation. This is important because consolidating in 2026 can quietly erase forgiveness progress and isn't helpful for most borrowers who aren't exiting default.
Protect Borrowers reported that roughly 530,000 IDR applications were sitting unprocessed, a figure that matches the last court-ordered status report.
The GAO warned in March that the Department had cut its workforce roughly in half and discontinued assessments of servicer accuracy and call quality across a portfolio exceeding $1.6 trillion.
And the monthly status reports that let the public track any of this have now ended since the original settlement agreement that required them only allowed six.
How This Connects
We've tracked the IDR backlog through its full arc: from 1.9 million stuck applications in April 2025, down to 576,609 in a March court filing, with the Department finally processing more applications than it received and new online applications clearing in roughly three to seven days.
That improvement is exactly what makes this email frustrating. The process finally got faster, and then a calculation error pushed some borrowers back to the fray.
The stakes are also higher than normal since 7 million people have to leave SAVE. This means picking the right plan is essential.
Getting the wrong number in front of you at the moment you choose between them is a costly mistake. Run and validate your own figures through our Student Loan Calculator or the RAP Calculator before you trust the application's estimate. We also have an easy to use Student Loan Calculator App as well.
What to do: Log in to StudentAid.gov, open "My Activity," and confirm whether an IDR application is actually pending. If there's no record and no servicer confirmation, treat it as canceled and reapply. Screenshot everything. And be skeptical of anyone offering to fix it for a fee as deadline pressure is a favorite setup for student loan scams.
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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.