Important Updates on Consolidations, IDR Applications, and Recertification Dates

After facing enormous pressure, including a lawsuit, the Department of Education (DOE) announced that IDR and Consolidation applications were back online as of March 26. Unfortunately, they are still not processing anything, as servicers need more time to update their systems. There is some important guidance in this announcement, but many questions are still left unanswered. Let’s break it down.

Applications

If you have been waiting to apply to an IDR plan, or to consolidate your Federal loans, you now have the ability to submit those applications.

This will primarily impact those who are:

• Tired of being on the SAVE forbearance.
• Being told they must switch to IBR in order to process their final PSLF application.
• Switching out of PAYE due to the 20-year forgiveness being taken away.
• Wanting to take advantage of a drop in income.

While servicers are not processing these apps just yet, it sounds like they are working hard behind the scenes to get that going again.

IDR Recertifications

This next part is a bit tricky, so please read carefully.

If your recertification date was on or before March 17, 2025, you needed to recertify on or before Feb. 20, 2025:

• If you submitted your recertification request by Feb. 20, and your servicer completed your IDR renewal, you’re good to go. Stick with that new payment.
• However, if you submitted your recertification request by Feb. 20, and your servicer did not process your renewal, your recertification date will be extended by one year.
• Finally, if you did not submit your recertification request by Feb. 20, your servicer has likely recalculated your payment based on a 10- or 25-year term. We’ve seen many of these. You are still (technically) enrolled in an IDR plan, but you need to submit a recertification request ASAP to bring your payment back down. Visit StudentAid.gov to submit a new IDR application.

If your recertification date was on or after March 18, 2025, you were (technically) due to recertify on or after Feb. 21, 2025. It seems this group gets a break:

• If you were due to submit a recertification request on or after Feb. 21, 2025, then your recertification date has been extended by one year. Do not submit a recertification request at this time.
• In some instances, however, borrowers who should have had their recertification date extended were (again) given those 10- or 25-year payment amounts. Servicers are working to move those affected borrowers back to the monthly payment amount based on their (previously documented) income and family size.
• There is no mention for borrowers with these dates who may have already recertified. This implies no recertifications for this group were completed. If that is not the case, contact your servicer.

If your account already shows a recertification date on or after Feb. 1, 2026:

• Your recertification date has not been extended any further. This should be your effective recertification date moving forward.

Borrowers in SAVE Forbearance

No new guidance has been issued for the millions of borrowers in this status. Sorry. We do not think this SAVE forbearance can last much longer.

Big Picture

With a temporary budget measure in place through September, we suspect it will be months before Congress lays out the details for their new IDR plan (to replace all existing plans). We do think this is going to happen though. If Congress follows current procedures, the new plan would go live in July of 2026. This means most borrowers will end up utilizing IBR or PAYE this year. We expect a grandfathering clause will be applied to those who wish to stay in IBR next year. We hope the same for PAYE participants, but that is less certain.

Final Thoughts

If all of this feels overwhelming, you’re not alone. Between legal challenges, policy shifts, and platform outages, we know how frustrating this season of student loan management has become. As always, our team is here to help you make sense of the chaos and stay on track.

If you need help reviewing your options or making a change, don’t hesitate to book a consultation with one of our advisors. We’ll walk you through it, step by step.