The Education Department quietly unveiled an updated application for income-driven repayment plans this week. IDR plans are a set of critical repayment options that allow borrowers to repay their federal student loans based on their income, with the possibility of eventual student loan forgiveness . The department updated the form to include a new IDR option that had previously been excluded from the paper version of the application form.

In July, the department launched the new Repayment Assistance Plan, or RAP, a new income-driven plan created under President Trump’s One Big, Beautiful Bill Act that Congress enacted last year. RAP provides borrowers with another repayment option tied to their income as the Education Department works to phase out other IDR options, starting with the SAVE plan . In some cases, RAP will be more affordable for borrowers than Income-Based Repayment (or IBR), the only legacy IDR plan that will stick around on a long-term basis following the implementation of the recent legislative reforms. For borrowers who take out any new federal student loans (or consolidate their existing loans) on or after July 1, 2026, RAP is the only allowable income-driven repayment option.

But while RAP was made available through the Education Department’s online application portal for income-driven repayment plans when the plan debuted in July, it was excluded from the paper version of the application. This effectively had blocked the plan for certain borrowers, and in some cases, prevented them from enrolling in income-driven repayment altogether. Here’s what’s changed, and why this week’s update is important for federal student loan borrowers.

Many Student Loan Borrowers Will Need To Enroll In RAP For Affordable Payments

RAP is a controversial new income-driven repayment plan for federal student loans. In some cases, RAP will provide more affordable monthly payments for borrowers than other income-driven plans, although in many cases, that’s because the Education Department is phasing out the more affordable IDR options including the SAVE plan this year, and the PAYE plan in 2028. RAP has other potentially beneficial features, such as an interest subsidy and principal benefit for borrowers whose monthly payments aren’t high enough to cover the interest accruing on their student loans. These benefits are supposed to prevent the borrower’s loan balance from growing over time.

But the benefits of RAP come with some fairly significant drawbacks. RAP requires 30 years of payments before a borrower can qualify for student loan forgiveness, far longer than any other income-driven repayment plan. And payments made under RAP can’t count toward student loan forgiveness under other income-driven repayment plans, including IBR, which can effectively lock borrowers into RAP if they later want to switch plans. Furthermore, RAP has a less generous definition of family size, no income exemption for the lowest-income borrowers, and no cap on payments; the combination of these hindrances mean that for some borrowers, RAP can be much more expensive than any other income-driven repayment plan, including IBR.

“We know that the longer a borrower is required to remain in the repayment system, the more likely they are to fall out of that plan, get kicked into a plan with an unaffordable payment, and face the severe consequences of default,” said The Institute For College Access and Success in a blog post last year after RAP was first announced. “All told, the RAP proposal is not much of a safety net.”

But for some borrowers, RAP is now the only available income-driven repayment plan option, and therefore, the only repayment plan that they will be able to afford going forward.

“If you have at least one loan first disbursed on or after July 1, 2026, you’re required to repay all of your eligible Direct Loans under the Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP) or the Tiered Standard Plan,” says Education Department guidance explaining the new legislative reforms. The Tiered Standard repayment plan does not base monthly payments on income and does not qualify for student loan forgiveness, so for these borrowers, RAP is effectively the only affordable option.

Student Loan Income-Driven Repayment Application Had Excluded RAP

But even as the Education Department officially launched RAP in July, officials failed to update the physical income-driven repayment plan application. Student loan borrowers could select RAP through the online IDR application at StudentAid.gov, but had no way of applying for RAP using a paper form. This week, the department finally updated the income-driven repayment application to include RAP as an available option.

For some borrowers, submitting a paper application for an income-driven repayment plan is the only viable way to apply. This includes:

  • Borrowers who don’t have easy access to a computer or a reliable internet connection, and so cannot easily apply online.
  • Borrowers who are encountering some sort of glitch or problem with the online income-driven repayment application, which has become fairly widespread during the last several months. For example, some borrowers have been reporting that the online system is miscalculating their monthly IDR payments, or not allowing them to select RAP or other income-driven repayment plans when they should otherwise qualify. Other borrowers, such as married borrowers who both have federal student loans and file their taxes jointly, are supposed to get their income-driven payments proportionally adjusted, but the online application system isn’t always allowing for that. Submitting a paper IDR application is a workaround for these issues.
  • Borrowers who have federal student loans with multiple loan servicers. While the online application system is supposed to split up the income-driven payments across the loan servicers, borrowers are indicating that this is not always happening after submitting an online application.
  • Borrowers who aren’t able to link to their tax return online through the IDR application’s IRS portal, or cannot upload income documentation into the online application system.

For these student loan borrowers, and others who have an issue with the online application system at StudentAid.gov, a paper form is the only option. Now, these individuals can finally apply for RAP using a paper application, following the Education Department’s update this week.

How Student Loan Borrowers Can Apply For Income-Driven Repayment Plans Using The New Paper Application

Borrowers who want to apply for RAP or another income-driven repayment plan using the updated paper application can download the form online from the Education Department’s federal student loan forms library . The form is a fillable PDF file, so borrowers can type in their responses on a computer, or they can print out the form and complete it by hand. All signatures must be hand-drawn (a typed signature won’t be accepted).

Borrowers should collect their supporting income documentation, such as their most recent federal tax return (only the federal Form 1040 is required) or a federal tax transcript, or other recent income documentation, like a pay stub dated within the last 90 days. Borrowers can then scan the application and income documentation and upload everything directly to their student loan servicer (most, if not all, of the Education Department’s student loan servicers have document upload portals available online). Alternatively, they can send the application to their servicer via mail or fax. Contact your loan servicer if you have questions about application submission options so that you can get your student loans properly enrolled in income-driven repayment.