Loan Repayment Program Makes Health School More Affordable
Financial Help for Health School Students
Paying back your health school loans just got easier, making this a great time to consider going to health school.
The federal government has created an income-based loan repayment plan (IBR) that caps the amount that loan recipients pay back per month. Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach to calculating your loan payments, the IBR considers that you have other bills to pay besides your student loans.
You can take advantage of IBR if your federal student loan debt is high relative to your income and family size. According to IBRInfo.org, most eligible borrowers will end up with loan payments that are less than 10 percent of their monthly income.
You qualify for the income-based repayment plan if you have the following new or old loan types:
- Stafford loan
- Grad PLUS loan
- Consolidation loan under either the Direct Loan or Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program*
The U.S. Department of Education provides an IBR calculator to determine whether you would benefit from the new plan. Bear in mind that you will need to work with your lender to formalize your eligibility and monthly loan payment.
To help you even more, if you can't pay back your student loan within 25 years, the federal government will forgive any remaining balance. If you work in government or for a non-profit organization, your federal loans will be forgiven in just 10 years.
*Parent PLUS and private loans do not qualify, nor do any loans currently in default.
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