New Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) Plan: RAP
A new income-driven repayment plan called the Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP) was created through a reconciliation bill that was signed into law on July 4, 2025. The plan should be available by no later than July 1, 2026 to Direct Loan borrowers.
Parent PLUS Not Eligible for RAP
RAP is not available for Parent PLUS Loan debt. This includes (1) Parent PLUS Loans, (2) Consolidation Loans that paid off Parent PLUS Loans, and (3) Consolidation Loans that paid off Consolidation Loans that paid off Parent PLUS Loans. Learn more about Parent PLUS repayment options in Parent PLUS section of our student loan repayment guide.
RAP Forgiveness Timeline & Subsidies
RAP comes with a 30-year forgiveness timeline (as opposed to 20 or 25 years in other IDR plans) but may offer helpful interest subsidies to some federal loan borrowers.
A RAP payment has to be made on-time to count toward RAP forgiveness or Public service Loan Forgiveness. Payments you make in RAP will not count toward forgiveness under the older income-driven plans – IBR, ICR, and PAYE. This means if you’re pursuing income-driven repayment forgiveness, if you choose RAP, you will not be able to switch back to another plan without losing the progress toward forgiveness you made while paying in RAP. This is different from all the other income-driven plans. In the other plans, you carry your qualifying payments with you when you switch income-driven plans.
If your RAP payment amount is less than the monthly interest that accrues on your loans, the remaining unpaid interest is not charged. This will prevent your loan balance from increasing while in the plan. Additionally, if your RAP monthly payment does not reduce your principal balance by at least $50, a subsidy will be applied to ensure that the principal balance is reduced by at least $50 each month.
RAP Calculation
RAP requires you to pay a percentage of your adjusted gross income. If you have dependents, $50 per dependent will be deducted from your monthly payment. The minimum monthly payment under this plan is $10.
You can use the below chart to estimate your RAP payment based on your adjusted gross income and number of dependents.
