Who Qualifies for the SAVE Plan for Student Loans?

No one can newly qualify for the SAVE plan for student loans. On December 9, 2025, the U.S. Department of Education announced a settlement agreement to end the Saving on a Valuable Education plan, deny all pending applications, and move existing SAVE borrowers into other repayment options.¹ If you were hoping to enroll, that door is closed. If you were already in SAVE, you’re in forbearance and will be moved to a different plan. The eligibility rules that governed SAVE still matter, though, because most of them carry over to the income-driven repayment plans you can still use.

What Happened to SAVE

SAVE replaced the earlier Revised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE) program and was designed to produce the lowest monthly payments of any income-driven repayment option. Multiple states sued, and federal judges issued injunctions blocking key provisions. The Department of Education then placed every enrolled SAVE borrower into a general forbearance because servicers could not bill at the correct amounts.

Under the December 2025 settlement, the Department will not enroll any new borrowers in SAVE, will deny all pending SAVE applications, and will move existing SAVE borrowers into other available repayment plans. The Department also agreed to hold a negotiated rulemaking session to formally remove SAVE from federal regulations. The settlement requires court approval before full implementation, but as a practical matter, no new enrollments are being processed.²

Who Would Have Qualified

Even with SAVE closed, its loan-type eligibility rules are worth knowing. The other income-driven repayment plans use similar categories, so the same distinctions determine which IDR options you can access today. Under 34 CFR 685.209, these Direct Loan types were eligible for SAVE:

Direct Subsidized Loans
Direct Unsubsidized Loans
Direct PLUS Loans made to graduate or professional students (not parents)
Direct Consolidation Loans, but only if the consolidation did not include any Parent PLUS debt³

Family size mattered too, because it set the income-protection threshold. Family size counted you, your spouse if you filed taxes jointly, children who received more than half their support from you, and other people living with you who depended on you for more than half their support.³ Married borrowers who filed taxes separately had only their own income counted, though a separately filing spouse was not counted in family size when the Department pulled data directly from the IRS.⁴

Which Loans Never Qualified

Parent PLUS loans were always excluded from SAVE. That exclusion followed the debt into consolidation: any Direct Consolidation Loan that included Parent PLUS debt remained ineligible, even if the parent consolidated it into a new loan.³

Older Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program loans and Perkins Loans were not directly eligible either. A borrower with those loans first had to consolidate them into a Direct Consolidation Loan, which converted the older debt into a direct federal loan.⁵

Defaulted federal student loans were not eligible for SAVE and are not eligible for any income-driven repayment plan today.⁶ If your loans are in default, you have to resolve that status before you can enroll in an IDR plan. The Fresh Start initiative that offered a streamlined path out ended on October 2, 2024.⁷ Loan rehabilitation is still available: nine on-time monthly payments over a 10-month window restore the loan to good standing, after which you can enroll in an IDR plan.

If You Were Already in SAVE

Borrowers enrolled when the injunctions took effect were placed into a general forbearance. Interest on loans in that forbearance began accruing on August 1, 2025.² Under the settlement, the Department will move all SAVE borrowers into other available repayment plans.¹

The months spent in this forbearance do not count toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) or toward the payment count for IDR forgiveness.² If you’re pursuing PSLF or IDR forgiveness and want the months to start counting again, apply to switch to another available IDR plan rather than waiting for the transition. The Department suggests using the Loan Simulator tool on StudentAid.gov to compare options.

Which IDR Plans You Can Still Use

Income-Based Repayment (IBR) and Pay As You Earn (PAYE) remain available for borrowers with eligible existing Direct Loans. Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR) is the only IDR option that accepts a consolidation loan containing Parent PLUS debt.³ The loan-type distinctions that governed SAVE eligibility generally control which of these you can access.

A larger change lands on July 1, 2026. Borrowers who take out or consolidate any federal student loans on or after that date will be limited to a new Standard plan and a new Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP). IBR, PAYE, and ICR will not be available for those new loans. RAP uses a sliding-scale formula based on adjusted gross income rather than the poverty-level discretionary-income calculation, and it carries a 30-year repayment timeline. If your federal loans were disbursed before July 1, 2026, you can still enroll in the existing IDR plans your loan types qualify for. The RAP transition affects only loans originated or consolidated on or after that date.

How To Apply Now

All the currently available income-driven repayment plans use the same Income-Driven Repayment Request form on StudentAid.gov. You’ll need your FSA ID, Social Security number, and your most recent federal tax return information.⁸ Consenting to the FUTURE Act Direct Data Exchange lets the Department pull your tax information directly from the IRS, which speeds up the application and enables automatic annual recertification.⁹

If you haven’t filed a recent tax return, you can submit alternative income documentation such as pay stubs or an employer letter. Processing typically takes up to 60 days, and your servicer may place your loans in a processing forbearance while the paperwork moves.⁶ Recertify your income and family size every year on schedule. Miss the deadline and your plan will expire, dropping you onto a standard repayment schedule that can sharply raise your monthly bill.

1
U.S. Department of Education. U.S. Department of Education Announces Agreement with Missouri to End SAVE Plan
2
Federal Student Aid. Court Actions – IDR Plans
3
eCFR. 34 CFR 685.209 – Income-Driven Repayment Plans
4
Federal Student Aid. Loan Servicing Information – Availability of SAVE Plan and Updates to Income-Driven Repayment Plans
5
Federal Student Aid. 5 Things to Know Before Consolidating Federal Student Loans
6
Federal Student Aid. Top FAQs About Income-Driven Repayment Plans
7
Federal Student Aid. A Fresh Start for Federal Student Loan Borrowers in Default
8
Federal Student Aid. Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) Plan Request
9
Federal Student Aid. The FUTURE Act – Direct Data Exchange