The Department of Education says it is working to restore the income-driven repayment (IDR) payment count tracker on StudentAid.gov — reversing its own prior statement that the tool would not return.

Updated guidance published March 27 on the StudentAid.gov FAQ page states: “The court actions require that we modify the display of the IDR payment counters, which will require additional system changes. We are working to update our systems to make those changes.”

The department provided no timeline, no details on what modifications are being made, and no explanation of what “additional system changes” are required.

The Backstory: The IDR tracker originally let borrowers see how many qualifying payments they had accrued toward eventual loan forgiveness under plans like IBR, PAYE, and ICR. 

The department removed it after the Eighth Circuit’s February 2025 injunction against the SAVE Plan Final Rule, which also changed qualifying forbearance and deferment criteria across all IDR plans. The reason for the removal was that the tracker was allegedly displaying incorrect information as the result of the ongoing litigation about what counts and what doesn’t.

In December 2025, the department told a federal court it had “no plans to resume using the tool” because the injunction rendered the tracker’s data inaccurate.

But last summer, Senator Elizabeth Warren said Education Secretary Linda McMahon had assured her the tracker would return “soon” once system fixes were in place. The March guidance now appears to confirm McMahon’s earlier assurance.

Why It Matters: Millions of borrowers on IDR plans have no way to verify how many qualifying payments they’ve made toward the 20- or 25-year forgiveness threshold. Without the tracker, borrowers must contact their loan servicer directly and request a manual count, a process that has proven unreliable and time consuming. 

The stakes are especially high right now. Starting in 2026, borrowers who receive IDR forgiveness may owe federal and state income taxes on the discharged amount – known as the tax bomb. Knowing your exact payment count is the difference between planning ahead and getting hit with a surprise tax bill. Borrowers should run the tax bomb calculator to estimate any potential taxes.

How This Connects: The College Investor has tracked this story since the tracker first disappeared. Millions of borrowers are still unable to see their IDR payment counts, and a separate administrative backlog has left hundreds of thousands of borrowers stuck waiting for repayment plan processing.

Borrowers can currently access their IDR payment counts by downloading their “MyAid.txt” file and scanning the document manually for “QualifyingPaymentCount”. There are also free tools like this TXT File Reader to help.

What To Watch: The timing of this announcement corresponds with multiple other student loan changes rolling out. SAVE plan borrowers need to switch to another IDR plan or be moved to the Standard plan. The department will also launch the Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP) on July 1, a new IDR option with a 30-year forgiveness timeline.

All of these changes require significant system updates — the same systems that house the IDR tracker. Whether the tracker returns alongside these July changes or later remains unclear. The department has not commented beyond the FAQ update.

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