The applications were briefly unavailable while the department revised them to comply with an 8th Circuit Court of Appeals injunction issued last month. The court order halted implementation of the Biden Administration's Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan and portions of other IDR plans.
"A federal appeals court struck down another one of the Biden Administration's illegal efforts to transfer student loan debt to taxpayers," said Acting Under Secretary James Bergeron. "Our team was able to relaunch this application within weeks, ensuring borrowers have access and the ability to access all legal repayment plans."
During the temporary online outage, paper loan consolidation applications remained available to borrowers.
The Education Department confirmed that borrowers can now apply for three legal repayment options through the updated online system: the Income-Based Repayment (IBR) Plan, Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Plan, and Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR) Plan. These applications are accessible at StudentAid.gov/idr, along with a revised loan consolidation application.
The February 18th injunction specifically prevented the Department of Education from implementing the SAVE Plan, which the Trump Administration has characterized as "illegal." Officials noted that general repayment information continues to be available on the StudentAid.gov website.
