You Should Probably be in the SAVE Plan When Student Loan Payments Resume

Student loans continue to dominate headlines, but not everything you see may apply to you. That said, if you’re pursuing PSLF and still have student loans… the new Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) plan, SAVE, probably does.

While interest is scheduled to start accruing again on September 1^st, those enrolled in SAVE will not see balances increase. SAVE has three key components:

1. Interest will not accrue if your monthly payments don’t cover it.
2. Payments in SAVE are based on a lower amount of discretionary income (which means lower payments!). Single borrowers with income around $32k or less will still have no payments, and if your family size is 4, payments won’t be required until income exceeds around $65k.
3. If you’re married and file your taxes Married Filing Separately, you don’t have to submit your spouse’s income.

Borrowers using REPAYE today will automatically be enrolled when payments resume.

You may have seen the news that borrowers who can’t (or don’t want to) make payments in October won’t be put in default for at least 12 months. While that sounds like a nice security blanket, take caution: Interest still accrues and your non-payment status does NOT count towards PSLF. We don’t recommend this option unless it’s absolutely necessary for you financially.

The BenElevate team has all hands on deck to help you prepare for repayment to resume, and our tools have been updated with the new SAVE program.

Current BenElevate clients can login anytime and update your information. Most PSLF candidates should be switching to REPAYE/SAVE before 9/1.

• If you haven’t received a PSLF Opportunity Assessment from us, you can register here. *If your employer is working with us, please get your registration link from your HR team to bypass payment.

• If you’d like one-on-one support with any outstanding action items, we are also available by (Zoom) appointment. A 30-minute session is $100. In these sessions, we can complete consolidation and repayment applications, discuss tax implications, or simply answer questions that you and/or your spouse may have.

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.