Changes to PLUS Loan Repayment Plans
I read with interest your recent column in my local paper about PLUS Loans and the upcoming changes in 2026. I have been repaying the PLUS Loans my wife and I took out to help finance college for our two sons. My question is this: if I’m already in an income driven repayment plan do I need to take any action before 7-1-26 or will my current repayment plan continue next year?
Terry Says
The answer directly from Rae Kaplan of https://www.financialrelief.com/ is this:
The answer to this depends on what type of income driven repayment plan this borrower is enrolled in. Sometimes, I find the clients believe they are in an income driven repayment plan, when in fact, they are not.. so they must confirm with their servicer that they are, in fact enrolled in an income driven repayment plan which for parent plus loans would be the ICR. If they are already enrolled in the ICR, then they do not need to take any further action and they just need to continue to recertify once per year as usual and they will continue to benefit from income driven repayment. Then, according to the Department of Education and the budget reconciliation bill which recently passed, the ICR payment plan is going to be “ phased out “ in 2028, and they will be moved from ICR to an income based payment plan (IBR), which is based on a different formula and should actually lower their payments!
