{"id":261810,"date":"2026-08-08T22:34:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T22:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/261810\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T22:34:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T22:34:07","slug":"pennsylvania-borrowers-face-new-student-loan-repayment-hurdles-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/261810\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania borrowers face new student loan repayment hurdles | Education"},"content":{"rendered":"

Washington D.C. \u2014 Pennsylvania borrowers are among millions nationwide facing federal student loan changes as the cost of living continues to surge.<\/p>\n

Pennsylvanians hold more than $67 billion<\/a> of the more than $1.7 trillion<\/a> in U.S. student loan debt.<\/p>\n

Tamar Hoffman, staff attorney for Community Legal Services<\/a>, said under the Department of Education’s new regulations<\/a>, borrowers who have loans from before July 1st, 2026 keep most of their old repayment options and can use the new Repayment Assistance Plan.<\/p>\n

“For many borrowers, the Repayment Assistance Plan may be more expensive in terms of the monthly payments than the existing income-driven repayment plans. And also that for the tier standard plan, that’s basically a plan where you have fixed monthly payments each month,” Hoffman outlined.<\/p>\n

Hoffman noted that borrowers with loans from after July 1 now have fewer choices and must use either the RAP or the Tiered Standard plan. She pointed out many recent changes to the student loan repayment options are a result of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which introduced sweeping federal student loan reforms<\/a> when it was signed into law in 2025.<\/p>\n

Hoffman added the Education Department’s new repayment policies are particularly consequential for parent borrowers. Before July 1, Parent PLUS borrowers could consolidate their federal student loans in order to get access to income-driven repayment and public service loan forgiveness. The plans could keep payments as low as $0 per month for low-income borrowers. Hoffman stressed it is no longer the case.<\/p>\n

“Parents who either take out new Parent PLUS Loans for their kids’ educations or consolidate their prior Parent PLUS Loans will not have access to any kind of income-driven repayment plans for all of their Parent PLUS Loans,” Hoffman stressed.<\/p>\n

Hoffman added the loans will not be eligible for loan forgiveness.<\/p>\n

Hoffman explained people who are in default on their student loans typically have two options to get out of default. One is to rehabilitate their loans, which is about a 10-month process of making payments toward getting their loans out of default. The other option is to consolidate into a new loan which is not in default. With the new rules, borrowers have another opportunity to get out of default.<\/p>\n

“Starting July 1 of 2027, borrowers will have a second opportunity to rehabilitate their loans to get out of default. In terms of consolidation, borrowers should be aware that if they consolidate their loans now, they will be considered new borrowers for the purpose of determining which repayment plans they are eligible for,” Hoffman underscored.<\/p>\n

Hoffman added falling into default on federal student loans can have sweeping consequences, including wage garnishment and the loss of tax refunds or Social Security benefits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Washington D.C. \u2014 Pennsylvania borrowers are among millions nationwide facing federal student loan changes as the cost of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261811,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,110828],"class_list":["post-261810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-student-loan-debt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}