By Kiara Doyal, The Seattle Medium
When Keisha Darnold graduated from college in 2022, she was relieved to learn that her student loan payments had been temporarily paused due to provision in an income-driven repayment (IDR) plan. Entering the workforce with significant debt and no immediate job lined up, the thought of making monthly loan payments was overwhelming.
“I had just spent five years in college, racking up student loan debt, and the thought of potentially having to start making those monthly payments so quickly after graduation was scary,” Darnold said. “I didn’t have a job right away after graduation, so I was thankful for the student loan payment pause because it gave me time to get a job and save up money for when the payments would start.”
For borrowers like Darnold, income-driven repayment (IDR) plans have provided a crucial financial safety net. These plans cap monthly payments based on income, helping millions of working-class borrowers afford both student loans and essential expenses like rent, food, and childcare. However, a recent move by the Trump administration to freeze on all income-driven student loan repayment programs has thrown that lifeline into uncertainty, leaving millions—including teachers, nurses, and public servants—in financial limbo.
It was first reported in February that the Department of Education had blocked access to all IDR and online loan consolidation applications without warning, providing no Congressional notification or clear guidance for borrowers on what to do next. The move immediately impacted over 12 million student loan borrowers who rely on IDR plans to keep payments manageable. Without access to these plans, many fear falling deeper into debt with fewer options for repayment.
U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, recently joined Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), Senate HELP Committee Ranking Member Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and 23 other Democrats in demanding answers from the Department of Education about this abrupt decision.
“Without clear guidance on the next steps, working-class borrowers—including teachers, nurses, veterans, and other public servants who rely on these plans—are in limbo,” the senators said in a letter to the Department. “This most recent attack against student loan borrowers comes as President Trump and Republicans in Congress are pursuing an extremist right-wing agenda to gut affordable loan repayment options in order to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy.”
The freeze on IDR applications has also delayed or denied thousands of borrowers from earning credit toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF), a program designed to forgive student debt for borrowers who work in public service jobs for at least 10 years. Before the freeze, many PSLF borrowers were attempting to switch from the SAVE plan, which Trump and Republican lawmakers have also challenged in court. Now, more than one million IDR applications remain unprocessed, leaving borrowers stuck in non-qualifying forbearance and unable to accrue time toward loan forgiveness.
For Darnold, who was placed on an IDR plan that reduced her monthly payments from over $500 to $272, the uncertainty surrounding these programs is deeply concerning.
“It is worrisome to me for sure with Trump’s recent attack against student loan borrowers,” she said. “I am grateful for the option to have IDR plans because my monthly payments are based on what I can actually afford by looking at my income and other expenses, instead of what the government thinks I can afford.”
Senator Murray has long been vocal about the need to reform the student loan system. In 2022, she called on the Biden administration to extend the student loan payment pause until at least 2023 and use that time to fix the broken repayment system. She specifically urged the administration to create a new, streamlined IDR plan that caps payments at 10% of discretionary income and eliminates confusion caused by multiple existing IDR plans.
“It is crystal clear what I’ve already heard from so many struggling student borrowers in Washington state and across the country,” Murray said. “Our student loan system is seriously broken, it has been for years—and it must be fixed. Income-driven repayment plans should be a lifeline that allows borrowers to work towards real relief—but it’s now clearer than ever that these plans have failed to provide a reliable pathway to the relief that millions of borrowers have been diligently working toward.”
With loan recertification deadlines looming for thousands of borrowers, lawmakers are urging the Department of Education to immediately restore IDR and loan consolidation applications and provide clear guidance on the next steps for affected borrowers.
“It’s clear that for too long, the system has been failing borrowers, and they’ve instead been saddled with ballooning debts and false promises,” Murray said. “And it is borrowers with the tightest budgets who are harmed the most and are often trapped in repayment through no fault of their own. It’s absolutely unacceptable.”
For borrowers like Darnold, and the millions of others impacted, the fight for affordable repayment options is not just about policy—it’s about financial survival.
“Outside of student loans, many borrowers like myself included have housing, transportation, and everyday living expenses to pay each month,” Darnold said. “The financial burden [of student debt] is already high enough, and with the administration working to take away reasonable repayment option, the notion of education being a pathway to a better life is hard to quantify when you are struggling to make ends meet.”
Editor’s Note: The name of the student quoted in this story, Keisha Darnold, was changed to protect her privacy and identity.
Source: Seattle Medium
