Recommendation: The Secretary of Education should complete efforts to incorporate repayment plan switching into the agency's redesigned student loan model, and conduct testing to help ensure that the model produces estimates that reasonably reflect trends in Income - Driven
Repayment plan participation.
For Direct Loan borrowers GAO examined: (1) how
participation in Income - Based
Repayment and Pay As You Earn compares to eligibility, and to what extent Education has taken steps to increase awareness of these
plans, and (2) what is known about Public Service Loan Forgiveness certification and eligibility, and to what extent Education has taken steps to increase awareness of this program.