Income Driven Repayment Certification Rules and Dates – UPDATED 3/5/24

Since the dawn of time (or so it seems), borrowers have struggled to sift through confusing servicer letters and account details to determine when exactly they must recertify their income for their Income Driven Repayment (IDR) plans. Add the recent payment and interest pause from the CARES Act and contuing extensions from the Biden administration, and you’ll probably have an easier time learning another language than figuring this stuff out on your own! Fear not because we’re here to translate servicer letters into plain English. Below is everything you need to know about the IDR renewal process.

Why Recertify?

IDR plans adjust annually on your enrollment date. Your payment amount continually reflects your income and is usually based on the adjusted gross income (AGI) from your most recent tax returns. Otherwise, if there has been a significant change in income since those returns were filed, the payment amount will be based off that more recent economic data. And effective July 1st, 2023, borrowers can now elect to have their payment amount automatically recertified each year.

When is my recertification due?

Your loan servicer will start sending notices up to 90 days prior to your anniversary date. It is important to note that your anniversary date and the deadline to submit recertification are two different things. Depending on what verbiage is used by the servicers, it can be difficult to decipher their communications. And different servicers use different wording on their sites!

To break it down, your anniversary date is the date your payment changes to the new amount. Your IDR recertification date is the last date you will make your current payment amount. You need to do your recertification paperwork after your 10th payment on your current cycle of payments and before your 11th payment. For example, if your anniversary date is April 1, your 12th payment is due in March, your 11th is in February, and your 10th payment is in January. Therefore, you would want to complete and submit your recertification paperwork between January and February.

How do I find my recertification date?

Your anniversary date is on your National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) file. To find it:

• Log into studentaid.gov.
• Click the arrow in the top right corner next to your name.
• Click My Aid, and on the following page click on download my aid data.

The anniversary date shown is the date your payment will change, so 30 days prior is the last date of your current repayment amount (or 12th payment on that cycle).

If your servicer is MOHELA:

1. Log into mohela.com.
2. Click on Repayment Options in the blue bar at top.
3. Click Income Driven Details.

The date shown is your 12th payment.

If your servicer is not MOHELA, you can log into your servicer’s website and click on loan details. This will show the details of your IDR plan and will state when it’s set to expire. The expiration date shown is the date your payment will change, so 30 days prior to that date is the last date of your current payment amount.

MARCH 2024 UPDATE: New Guidance from Biden/DOE

Coming out of the CARES Act payment pause borrowers were promised that no one would need to “recertify” their IDR plan before March 1st. What this really meant was that payments would not be updated before March 1st. But the recertification process starts well before that. 90-day notices started going out in December of 2023 showing recertification deadlines in January and February, which confused many borrowers. The administration has addressed this issue by extending the recertification date to late September (at the earliest) with no payments increasing before November 1st.

A few important points:

1. If you have not recertified your IDR plan since the end of the payment pause: You get a payment pause for the month of March while they adjust your recert dates.
2. If you have already recertified your IDR plan and your payment increased: You will see your required payment amount revert back to the previous amount.
3. If you have already recertified your IDR plan and your payment decreased (or stayed the same): You get to keep your new payment.

You can find the official announcement here. As of the date of this posting the offical page leaves out a few critical details. The most glaring ommission is DOE has not specified exactly when borrowers will recertify beyond this September timeframe. Our assumption is that current recertification dates (DD/MM) will remain in effect, and those who have dates prior to Sep/Oct will be pushed out another year. 

We hope this helps you interpret your notices from your servicers! As always, if you need assistance breaking down your recertification timeline, or have any other questions regarding your student loans, our team of expert advisors are standing by to assist with a comprehensive student loan consultation.