Department of Education Finalizes Rules Affecting Federal Student Loan Borrowers

Student Lending Department of Education Agency Rule-Making & Guidance

On October 27, the Department of Education announced final regulations regarding how students access Federal student aid and implementing a Revised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE) program. The new rules addressing access to Federal student aid (i) protect students against “excessive” fees to access aid; (ii) require institutions to give greater choice and information to students about how to receive aid; and (iii) prohibit institutions from requiring students to open certain accounts for the deposit of student aid refunds, among other things. The rules also limit the amount of information institutions can share with third party institutions providing campus debit and prepaid cards to students under partnerships with schools and require schools to disclose on their websites the terms of those partnerships. The second set of rules announced on October 27 establishes an expanded Pay As You Earn program, which caps payments at 10 percent of annual income. The REPAYE plan covers five million more Direct Loan borrowers, without regard to when the borrowers first obtained their loans.