But the repayment program also moves money around from those with higher lifetime incomes to those with lower lifetime incomes. This is partly because federal student loans are available only to those with relatively low family incomes while studying. But it is also because of the way the repayment system works.
There are two ways to repay student loans: through a mortgage-style system, with fixed monthly repayments over a 10- or 15-year term, or through the Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP), a program that sets payments at an affordable level for those with lower incomes.
Under RAP, the monthly payment is zero for a single person with an income below $40,000 (higher for those in larger families), and repayments cannot be more than 10 per cent of income.
Around 30 per cent of borrowers use RAP in the first year after leaving school, and about 20 per cent of all borrowers who have left school are in the system at a single point in time.Continue reading