As federal student loan payments resume in October, the Biden Administration announced that it is now accepting applications for the new SAVE plan during its beta period.
The Saving on a Valuable Education plan is a new income-driven repayment plan that the Biden Administration rolled out after the Supreme Court struck down its debt forgiveness plan in June.
The new plan makes several changes to the previous income-driven repayment system by raising the threshold for protection from payments from 150% above the poverty line to 225% above. This means that a single person who earns no more than $32,800 or a family of four that earns no more than $67,500 will owe zero dollars.
Borrowers can apply at studentaid.gov. Those who apply during the beta period do not have to reapply once it ends. The program goes into full effect on July 1, 2024.
Other changes to the income-driven repayment system include automatic enrollment of delinquent borrowers, waivers of unpaid interest and allowing married borrowers to include their spouse’s income in the payment calculation.
The Administration says other borrowers who are more than 225% above the poverty line will save at least $1,000 or 40% a year on their payments.
While these changes are expected to save borrowers thousands of dollars, the program is not without controversy with some saying it does not do enough.
“I really don’t even look at these IDRs on their advertising points anymore,” Alan Collinge, founder of StudentLoanJustice.org, told The Hill. “In the absence of the leverage of bankruptcy protections, the Department of Education behaves in the worst of bad faith with all of these IDRs, and they truly have no intentions or desires of actually canceling anyone’s loans.”
The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania estimates SAVE will cost taxpayers $475 billion over ten years.
