The Repayment Assistance Plan, line by line

The Repayment Assistance Plan sets your monthly payment at 1% to 10% of your adjusted gross income, depending on which $10,000 band your income falls in, minus $50 a month for each dependent, with a $10 minimum. It opened on July 1, 2026, under section 455(q) of the Higher Education Act, added by Public Law 119-21. Interest your payment doesn’t cover is waived, and whatever is left after 360 qualifying payments is forgiven.

The payment table

The percentage applies to all of your AGI, not just the slice inside the band. That makes the jumps at band edges real: at $50,000 you pay 4% ($2,000 a year), at $50,001 you pay 5% ($2,500.05 a year).

Adjusted gross income	Yearly base payment	Monthly, no dependents
$10,000 or less	$120	$10
$10,001 to $20,000	1% of AGI	$10 to $17 (the $10 minimum applies below $12,000)
$20,001 to $30,000	2% of AGI	$33 to $50
$30,001 to $40,000	3% of AGI	$75 to $100
$40,001 to $50,000	4% of AGI	$133 to $167
$50,001 to $60,000	5% of AGI	$208 to $250
$60,001 to $70,000	6% of AGI	$300 to $350
$70,001 to $80,000	7% of AGI	$408 to $467
$80,001 to $90,000	8% of AGI	$533 to $600
$90,001 to $100,000	9% of AGI	$675 to $750
Over $100,000	10% of AGI	$833 and up

Then subtract $50 a month for each dependent under the tax code (section 152) whom you claim on your return. If you are married and file separately, only the dependents on your own return count, and only your own AGI is used. If you file jointly, the AGI is your combined AGI, and the payment is scaled down if your spouse also has eligible loans (more on that below).

A worked example

Say you’re single with one child, AGI $55,000, and you owe $48,000 at 6.53% (the rate on undergraduate Direct Loans first paid out from July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025, per 89 FR 68878).

1. Your band is $50,001 to $60,000, so 5%: 5% × $55,000 = $2,750 a year.
2. Divide by 12: $229.17 a month.
3. Subtract $50 for your child: $179.17 a month.

Monthly interest on $48,000 at 6.53% is $261.20. Your $179.17 doesn’t cover it, so the remaining $82.03 of interest is simply not charged. None of your payment reached principal, and you paid more than $50, so the Department reduces your principal by the full $50. Your balance drops from $48,000 to $47,950 even though you paid less than the interest.

Under IBR, on unsubsidized loans, that $82.03 would have been added to your unpaid interest every month.

Who can use RAP

• Direct Loans to students, both the ones made before July 1, 2026 and after. Subsidized, Unsubsidized, Grad PLUS and Direct Consolidation Loans that didn’t repay a Parent PLUS loan all qualify.
• Not Parent PLUS loans, and not consolidation loans that repaid one. The law calls these “excepted loans” and keeps them out of RAP. Parents have a different set of options.
• FFEL and Perkins loans have to be consolidated into a Direct Consolidation Loan first.

If you have any loan made on or after July 1, 2026, RAP and the Tiered Standard plan are your only two choices, and you pay all of your loans under the one you pick. If all your loans are older, RAP sits alongside IBR and the 10-year Standard plan, and you can compare them in the calculator.

Forgiveness takes 30 years

The balance is canceled after 360 qualifying monthly payments, provided your most recent payment before cancellation was under RAP. Qualifying payments include on-time RAP payments, IBR payments, payments under other plans that are at least the 10-year standard amount, payments under income-contingent plans before July 1, 2028, and months in economic hardship or unemployment deferment.

Thirty years is five to ten years longer than IBR’s 20 or 25. For most people that means RAP forgiveness matters less than RAP’s monthly cost and its interest waiver. If you work in public service, it barely matters at all: on-time RAP payments count toward the 120 payments for PSLF, and PSLF forgives the rest after 10 years.

Where RAP is a bad fit

RAP has no cap tied to your balance. IBR’s payment can never exceed what you’d pay on a 10-year standard plan, but RAP’s payment keeps climbing with your income. A doctor with $250,000 of AGI owes 10% of it, about $2,083 a month, regardless of whether a standard payment would be lower. The law’s only limit is that your payment can’t exceed what you owe.

Married couples should run the numbers both ways. File jointly and RAP uses your combined AGI; if your spouse also has eligible federal loans, the Department’s regulation (34 CFR 685.209(g)(3)) then scales your payment by your share of the couple’s combined balance, with the $10 minimum applied after that. File separately and only your own AGI and the dependents on your own return count, though separate returns can cost you tax breaks.