Consolidated Parent Plus Loan’s eventual transition from ICR to IBR. What’s the rule regarding making payments before the transition?
I consolidated all my parent plus loans together back during 2024.
Under SAVE, I was paying $0.
Then once the big beautiful bill was being talked about, I switched to ICR.
From August 2025 to January 2026 I was paying $291 under ICR.
Then I lost my job and after I exhausted my unemployment benefits, I submitted a request to my servicer to update my current income (I make $12k a year from a rental unit.) this brought my ICR payment from February 2026 onwards to $0 a month.
I know PPL’s need to be consolidated by July 2026 in order to be eligible to be switched to IBR sometime in 2028.
However, there’s also a payment obligation based on what I read around here. So I’m unsure if I met the requirements or not?
When does your “at least one payment under ICR” begin? And does my $0 monthly payment count? I’m sure it does but sometimes these student loan regulations are obtuse in their interpretation and implementation and I can see some yeehaw judge say “well actually a payment of $0 isn’t actually a payment.” (Like that one judge 1-2 years ago who was saying that ICR, PAYE and REPAYE need to be “repaid” in full, since the word repayment implies paying back in full.)
I know I’m being paranoid but appreciate any expert’s responses.