Student Loans

Tiered Standard

Fixed payments over a term set by the size of the balance. The automatic default for anyone entering repayment with a loan from 1 July 2026, and it earns no credit towards public service forgiveness.

How it works

  • The term comes from the balance at entry: ten years under $25,000, fifteen to $50,000, twenty to $100,000, and twenty-five above that.
  • The payment is at least fifty dollars a month.
  • Nothing is forgiven at the end. The loan simply finishes.
  • This is the plan a borrower lands on by doing nothing, and payments made on it do not count towards Public Service Loan Forgiveness or its temporary expanded version. A public service worker who never chooses a plan spends those years earning no credit.

No credit towards public service forgiveness

Payments made on this plan do not count towards the 120 needed for Public Service Loan Forgiveness, or towards its temporary expanded version. If you work for a qualifying employer, every month here is a month that earns you nothing towards it.

See what that costs over ten years

This one is being litigated

Which programmes count as professional, which sets the $50,000 annual and $200,000 aggregate borrowing limits.

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, preliminary stay of 24 to 25 June 2026.

Some programmes previously treated as professional are not, and the reverse, for as long as the stay holds. Ask your institution rather than relying on a list. Three suits are pending and a ruling on the merits can come after 4 December 2026.

Read more about the case

Compare this against the other plans

Sources

  1. Repayment plans and important definitions, U.S. Department of Education. Checked on . Backs which plans are open to which borrowers from 1 July 2026; the Tiered Standard term brackets and its $50 minimum; the effect of a single post-cutover disbursement on all of a borrower's loans.
  2. Income-driven repayment plans, U.S. Department of Education. Checked on . Backs the IBR, PAYE and ICR formulas and forgiveness horizons.
  3. Court actions affecting income-driven repayment, U.S. Department of Education. Checked on . Backs the status of SAVE after the 10 March 2026 order; the 1% automatic debit reduction; that income-driven payment counters are not currently displaying.
  4. Reimagining and Improving Student Education (RISE): Federal Student Loan Program, final regulations, Office of the Federal Register. Checked on . Backs the regulation implementing the plan changes, effective 1 July 2026.

Checked on .