The federal student loan system remains mired in turmoil due to multiple legal challenges and major changes proposed by President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans. But there are several important dates that student loan borrowers should be aware of as they try to access affordable repayment plans and federal student loan forgiveness programs amid all of the ongoing disruptions.
While the landscape is more confusing than ever and can sometimes seem like it is changing by the day, understanding these important milestones for 2025 may help student loan borrowers navigate their options. Here’s a breakdown.
Three Key Dates For Income Recertification For Affordable Student Loan Repayment Plans
The Department of Education recently announced that it would be pushing out income recertification dates associated with income-driven repayment plans, which offer affordable payments to borrowers and the possibility of eventual student loan forgiveness. Under IDR plans, borrowers must recertify their income annually.
The decision to push out the recertification dates came after the Trump administration took down the IDR application and halted all processing following a recent court ruling from the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, which extended an injunction blocking the SAVE plan, one of several IDR options. Because borrowers on other IDR plans were unable to recertify their income given that the application to do so was removed, some borrowers started experiencing dramatic increases in their monthly payments when their IDR term lapsed.
A national labor union filed a lawsuit against the administration in March, arguing that the shutdown of the IDR system is illegal. Following this new legal challenge, the Department of Education announced that it would be pushing out annual recertifiation dates to 2026, with several key cutoff dates in February and March of this year.
“If your recertification date was on or before March 17, 2025, you were due to recertify on or before Feb. 20, 2025,” says updated department guidance. “If you submitted your recertification request on or before Feb. 20, 2025, and your servicer did not complete processing of your request, then your recertification date will be extended by one year. You do not need to submit a recertification request at this time.” Borrowers who experienced a jump in their monthly payments due to failure to recertify “must submit a recertification request as soon as possible to potentially lower your payment,” says the guidance (however, such requests are still not being processed).
“If your recertification date was on or after March 18, 2025, you were due to recertify on or after Feb. 21, 2025,” continues the guidance. “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. You do not need to submit a recertification request at this time.”
The department’s guidance indicates that borrowers who were due to recertify on or after February 21, 2025 and experienced an increase in their monthly payment amount should expect to have their monthly payments readjusted by their loan servicer in the coming weeks. Once all of the changes are implemented, the soonest any student loan borrower on any IDR plan should have to recertify their income would be February 1, 2026, according to the Department of Education.
Important Hearing On Student Loan IDR Processing Pause In April
A key court hearing will be held this month in the legal challenge over the Trump administration’s decision to suspend processing for income-driven repayment plans. The American Federation of Teachers, a national labor union, filed a lawsuit last month after the Department of Education removed IDR applications from its website and halted all processing following the 8th Circuit’s order extending the SAVE plan injunction.
While the department has now restored IDR applications to its website, processing remains paused, and it is unclear when that will resume.
“Although the IDR application is now available, loan servicers are still updating their systems in accordance with the court’s actions,” says department guidance. “Servicers will begin processing applications in the near future.”
The AFT is going forward with a motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, which – if granted – could force the Trump administration to resume IDR application processing.
“Millions of student loan borrowers are being denied Congressionally mandated student loan repayment and forgiveness programs, simply because the defendants have unlawfully ceased to accept and process enrollment applications,” reads the motion. A hearing is scheduled for April 17th.
Reforms To Student Loan Forgiveness And Repayment Programs In Reconciliation Bill
Republican lawmakers in Congress are proposing an array of reforms that could dramatically reshape federal student loan forgiveness and repayment programs. The proposed changes, they argue, would reduce government spending and help offset the projected costs of extending and expanding massive tax cuts that are due to expire at the end of the year.
Proposed changes include repealing Biden-era regulations that have expanded access to several federal student loan forgiveness programs including Borrower Defense to Repayment and Closed School discharges. Lawmakers also want to eliminate time-based student loan forgiveness associated with income-driven repayment plans and replace these options with a new IDR program that would limit loan forgiveness to borrowers who make significant payments over time. Republicans also want to repeal the SAVE plan, sunset the Graduate PLUS and Parent PLUS loan programs, and make changes to eligibility rules for Public Service Loan Forgiveness, or PSLF.
So far, these are proposals, and nothing has been finalized yet. But House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith (R-MO) has said that he wants a bill passed by Memorial Day. So that will be a key date for student loan borrowers to watch.
Two Key Dates For The SAVE Plan Forbearance Pausing Student Loan Payments
Millions of borrowers remain in limbo on their student loans due to the ongoing forbearance associated with the SAVE plan legal challenges. Because courts have blocked the SAVE plan, millions of borrowers have not had to make payments on their student loans, and interest isn’t accruing. But the time spent in the forbearance won’t count toward student loan forgiveness for income-driven repayment plans or for PSLF.
After the 8th Circuit’s new ruling earlier this year extending the ongoing injunction blocking the SAVE plan, it doesn’t sound like the SAVE plan forbearance is ending anytime soon. But no one can know exactly when the forbearance will end, or when borrowers will be resuming their payments. That’s because the end of the forbearance will depend in part on when the courts issue a final ruling on the fate of the SAVE plan. While most observers believe that SAVE will ultimately get struck down, no one can say when, exactly. As a result, there is a good amount of uncertainty about when SAVE plan borrowers should expect to resume repayment.
According to current Department of Education guidance, “Servicers expect to complete the necessary technical updates to be ready to begin moving borrowers back into repayment no earlier than September 2025. Because this transition will take time, servicers expect first payments to be due no earlier than December 2025.”
But all of this could be subject to change. “Borrowers will be informed of any further change to this timeline,” says the guidance.
End-of-Year Expiration Of Student Loan Forgiveness Tax Relief
On December 31, 2025, tax relief associated with student loan forgiveness will come to an end. Several student loan forgiveness programs have been shielded from federal taxation under the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act. But unless Congress extends this relief, many (although not all) student loan discharges and loan forgiveness events will revert to being taxable again starting in 2026.
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