Administration officials in the meantime are pitching the new repayment program as a way to help borrowers better manage the resumption of payments this fall.
The Education Department said that the online application for borrowers was officially live on its website, StudentAid.gov, though the agency has been accepting applications since earlier this month as part of a “beta” testing period. Senior administration officials told reporters on Monday that borrowers who apply for the new program “in the coming days” should expect to have their applications processed by the time their monthly payments resume in October. But they did not offer any concrete cutoff date by which borrowers must apply.
The department expects servicers to process applications within “about four weeks” after they are received, one administration officials told reporters.