How Will Your Student Loan Payment Change If Congress Passes the Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP)?

Paying off student loans can already feel like solving a puzzle. If Congress passes the budget bill now before the Senate, that puzzle could be addressed with a new set of rules, known as the Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP). 

The measure would immediately remove nearly all income-driven repayment plans (SAVE, PAYE, and others), except for the original Income-Based Repayment (IBR) Plan, which was created prior to 2008. Pre-2026 borrowers may continue to use Standard (10-yr), Graduated, and Extended plans as well.

Any borrowers with new federal loans taken out on or after July 1, 2026, would need to repay the entire balance under the Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP).

Below, you’ll find an explanation of what RAP is, how it compares to the popular SAVE plan, why a $10 “token” payment matters, what happens to forgiveness, and how the changes could impact graduate and professional students. 

RAP in everyday terms

RAP is the government’s attempt to consolidate all the confusing repayment choices into one main option for new loans. Instead of shielding a big slice of income the way SAVE does, RAP looks at your entire adjusted gross income (AGI) and charges a small percentage of every dollar:

• 1% of AGI from roughly $10k–$20k
• 2% from $20k–$30k
• continuing to climb one percentage point per $10k until capping at 10% once income tops $100k

Even the lowest-income borrower must send at least $10 a month, so there would be no more $0 student loan bills. Like SAVE, RAP cancels any unpaid interest each month, so balances can’t grow if you make your required payment. Anything left after 30 years (360 payments) is forgiven.

The plan is simple to explain: take a slice of every dollar you earn, never less than $10, wipe out the interest each month, and then clear the slate after three decades. But that same simplicity means many people will write bigger checks each month than they do now.

RAP vs. SAVE: quick side-by-side

SAVE is today’s most affordable income-driven plan for many borrowers because it disregards the first $35,000 of income (for a single filer) before calculating any payment, using a discretionary income calculation based on poverty guidelines. 

RAP doesn’t ignore any income, but its percentage of income starts low and rises gradually. The table shows how the math differs:

Estimated monthly payment snapshot (single borrower, rounded):

The $10 minimum: small number, big change

About seven out of ten borrowers in income-driven plans have qualified for a $0 bill at some point. RAP ends that safety valve. Supporters say a token payment keeps borrowers in regular contact with their servicers and reduces the likelihood that loans will fall off the radar. Critics counter that $10 a month still matters to families already struggling to juggle rent, food, and childcare costs.

If you’re used to a $0 bill, plan for $120 a year under RAP. Build an automatic transfer on payday or mark your calendar so a missed $10 doesn’t snowball into late fees and credit-score damage. And recertify your income every year. Falling even a few months behind could push your payment above the $10 floor.

Deferment & forbearance: Why RAP is stricter than current rules

SAVE offers struggling borrowers multiple off-ramps, including $0 payments for low-income borrowers and multi-year deferment and forbearance options. RAP keeps the payments low by capping interest and charging just $10. Yet, it removes the long deferment windows that protect a borrower’s credit during prolonged hardship (though it does still allow administrative forbearance).

For anyone with unstable income, those tighter limits make RAP significantly less forgiving than today’s SAVE framework, and more borrowers may end up in delinquency and default.

Forgiveness moves from a marathon to an ultra-marathon

Current plans eliminate any remaining debt after 20 years for undergraduate loans or 25 years for graduate loans. RAP stretches the clock to a flat 30 years for everyone. That extra five-to-ten-year stretch means 60 more payments, thousands more dollars, and for many borrowers, a very real chance that they’ll finish paying the balance before any forgiveness kicks in.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) still works the same, with 120 payments and you’re done, but each of those 120 payments could be higher, leaving a smaller balance to forgive at the end.

Unless you qualify for PSLF or another early-forgiveness program, treat RAP’s 30-year write-off as an insurance policy rather than the centerpiece of your payoff plan.

Headed to grad school? Borrowing rules tighten

The same bill that would launch RAP also kills Grad PLUS loans and introduces new lifetime borrowing caps:

• $100,000 total for most graduate programs
• $150,000 for professional programs such as medicine, dentistry, and law
• $50,000 for Parent PLUS loans

Medical students routinely borrow over $200,000 today. Under the new caps, they’d need private loans, without income-based payments, PSLF, or federal discharge protections, to cover the gap.

Future doctors, lawyers, MBAs, and even parents of undergrads should price-check their programs now. If tuition outstrips the cap, line up scholarships, employer tuition assistance, or well-researched private loans long before the tuition bill arrives.

Six things you can do right now

The Repayment Assistance Plan has not yet been enacted and is subject to change. However, you can take steps to prepare if it does become law.

• Follow the news. The Senate could tweak payment tiers or delay start dates.
• Estimate your RAP bill. Use the snapshot table to ballpark your new payment.
• Consider shrinking your AGI. Pre-tax retirement contributions, HSAs, and even filing taxes separately (for some couples) lower the income RAP uses.
• Keep PSLF paperwork up to date. Higher payments still count, but missing forms erase credit.
• Borrow carefully after 2026. Any new federal loan after the cut-off date brings all your debt under RAP’s rules. Calculate the return on investment first.
• Download payment records now. Having proof of past payments helps if the counts change during a transition.

Treat these moves as free insurance: if RAP passes, you’re prepared; if it stalls, you still have a healthier budget and better loan files.

Final thoughts

RAP would make student-loan rules easier to explain but harder on many wallets: higher minimum payments, a longer journey to forgiveness, and stricter borrowing limits for graduate school. The interest-waiver feature remains, which is a significant win, but most SAVE users would still pay more each month and for a longer period.

The bill is not yet final, but the direction is clear: lawmakers want borrowers to shoulder a larger share of their educational costs. Use the time before any vote to crunch your numbers, shore up your paperwork, and practice life with a slightly larger loan payment. If RAP never arrives, you’ll be ahead of your budget goals. If it does, you’ll meet the new rules on your own terms, not in a panic.