The Rollercoaster Continues: What’s Next for SAVE?

We’ve continued to receive inquiries regarding the fate of SAVE, which remains caught in legal limbo (again) as the Supreme Court prepares to review the cases for and against it. Here’s where things stand today:

Right now, if you’re enrolled in SAVE (or were enrolled in REPAYE before it changed to SAVE), like 8 million other borrowers, your payments are officially on an interest-free forbearance. The courts have paused all granting of forgiveness as well, even if you’ve completed 120 qualified payments and applied for forgiveness.

While you have no payments and no interest is piling up, there is one caveat: this time in forbearance, on its face, won’t count toward PSLF or IDR forgiveness.

That said, there are multiple paths to ensuring that this time will ultimately qualify for PSLF:

1. The “Easy Peasy” (most desirable): The Department of Education (ED) reverses course and counts the forbearance retroactively.
2. The PSLF Buyback program, when made available this Fall, will permit make-up payments to cover the forbearance. ED will reach out to all borrowers eligible for PSLF Buyback once the courts rule on SAVE and the final IDR adjustment is complete. This is supposed to happen by 9/1, but it wouldn’t surprise us to see it extended into the Fall given the SAVE drama.
3. The “Pony Up” (for lack of a better term): You can always make voluntary payments now, equivalent to the lowest monthly payment that currently qualifies for PSLF. If you don’t know what that is, your servicer may be able to help you, or schedule some time with BenElevate to review your options and strategy.

The IDR and Consolidation applications at www.StudentAid.gov remain down during this saga as servicers update their systems; if changes are urgent, you can contact your servicer or complete paper applications. That said, given expected processing delays, we don’t recommend taking either action until we know more.

We will continue to keep you apprised of updates as they are made available. Thank you for your continued trust and, as always, ‘til debt do us part.

About Author

Jason DiLorenzo

Jason is the Founder of BenElevate, an early stage fintech company working to address the student debt crisis by bringing to bear tools, expertise, and bespoke solutions to streamline student debt management for borrowers and employers.