Income-Driven Repayment Calculator

How it is calculated

The tool first builds a poverty guideline for your household: guideline = base + (family size − 1) × 5,140, where the base is the one-person guideline in dollars and 5,140 dollars is a fixed step per extra person. Discretionary income is annual income − guideline, floored at zero. The yearly payment is discretionary income × payment % ÷ 100 and the monthly payment is that figure divided by 12. Income and guideline are in US dollars per year. No 150 % multiplier is applied to the guideline, so the result is a simplified estimate; real plans differ in threshold, percentage and which income counts, and rules change over time. If income is below the guideline the payment is $0.00. Some inputs show no result: negative income, a family size below 1 or not a whole number, a payment percentage of 0 or above 100, or a base guideline of zero or less.

Common mistakes

• Typing the payment percentage as a fraction (0.10 instead of 10), which gives a payment close to zero; the field is a percentage from above 0 up to 100.
• Entering your monthly income instead of the annual figure; the formula expects dollars per year.
• Entering the guideline for your whole household as the base; the base is the one-person figure and the tool adds the extra members itself.
• Assuming the estimate is your servicer's bill: the 150 % protection used by official plans is not applied here, so the result is usually higher than a real quote.
• Entering a family size such as 2.5 or 0 to represent part-time dependants. Only whole numbers of 1 or more are accepted.