U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon leaves after holding a press conference at the White House in Washington, November 20, 2025.
Evelyn HochsteinReuter
New court filings show the Trump administration is making slow progress in processing a massive backlog of applications from hundreds of thousands of student loan borrowers seeking debt forgiveness or affordable repayment plans.
As of the end of November, 802,730 applications to move to income-driven repayment plans were still pending with the Department of Education. IDR plans limit a borrower’s monthly bills to a portion of their discretionary income and erase the remaining debt after a set period of time (usually 20 or 25 years).
An additional 80,210 applications are still being reviewed by the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Repurchase Authority. This program allows certain civil servants with 120 months of eligible civil service employment to receive retroactive pay for months missed due to deferment or deferral.
The agency reported that only 170 student loan borrowers enrolled in IDR plans had their debts canceled in November, while 280 had their debts forgiven under PSLF in the same month.
“At this rate, we’ll never be able to completely eliminate the backlog,” said higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz.
The Department of Education did not respond to requests for comment.
It’s unclear how the federal government shutdown, which lasted from Oct. 1 to Nov. 12, affected application processing during November. The agency said in a court filing only that the closure affected its ability to provide an accurate number of new applications received during the month.
Consumer advocacy groups say many student loan borrowers rely on IDR plans and loan forgiveness programs to afford their monthly payments and ultimately get out of debt.
According to the Congressional Research Service, more than 42 million Americans have student loans, totaling more than $1.6 trillion in debt.
As a result of a legal challenge filed by the American Federation of Teachers against the Trump administration, the Department of Education has agreed to share updates on the processing of borrower applications. The teachers union AFT, which represents about 1.8 million members, accused the Trump administration of denying student loan borrowers legal rights. The lawsuit ended in a settlement in October.
In March, Trump officials fired nearly half of the Education Department’s employees, including many who worked with borrowers.
The backlog comes at a difficult time for borrowers.
At a particularly difficult time for federal student loan holders, access to IDR plans and loan forgiveness remains difficult under the Trump administration. Trump administration officials said in April that more than 5 million borrowers were in default at the time, and that the total could rise to about 10 million.
Experts say borrowers are reeling from a weakened labor market and promises of relief that never materialized. The Biden administration announced debt forgiveness and new repayment plans aimed at significantly lowering monthly payments, but Republican-led legal challenges blocked both of those provisions.
“The federal student loan portfolio is probably in the worst shape it’s ever been in,” Kantrowitz said.
Why backlog worsens
The balance on your application may increase further.
The Trump administration recently announced that borrowers enrolled in the now-defunct Biden administration-era Savings for a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan will soon have to transfer to another plan. This could lead to millions of borrowers filing applications in the coming weeks and months. As of July, there were more than 7.6 million SAVE borrowers, according to the Department of Education.
Although SAVE has been completely blocked since a February court order, millions of borrowers are still enrolled in the SAVE forbearance program established by Biden officials as legal challenges to the program unfold.
Nancy Nearman, assistant director of New York’s Education Debt Consumer Assistance Program, told CNBC earlier this month that SAVE enrollees are already finding it difficult to resume payments on another plan.
“Many clients have taken steps to exit the SAVE grace period, but are still waiting months for their IDR applications to be processed,” Nierman said.
In August, Trump officials resumed charging interest to borrowers who continued their payment suspension period.
“Their loans are getting bigger and bigger as interest accrues, and there’s nothing they can do about it,” Kantrowitz said.
