If your child is in school, you can request a deferment until 6 months after they graduate, withdraw, or fall below a half-time status.

The request form is available here: https://studentaid.gov/sites/default/files/ParentPLUSBorrowerDeferment-en-us.pdf

However, deferring payments means you lose out on progress toward IDR forgiveness and PSLF, so it isn’t always advisible. You might also wish to consider the double-consolidation loophole while it is still open.

Thank you for your answer. Is it also correct that the parent plus loan cannot go back into deferment when our son goes to grad school?

Unfortunately, the PSLF rules in this instance are pretty strict. PSLF is only avaialble based upon the employment of the borrower, the person for whom the loan was borrowed doesn’t enter the equation under the current rules.

It is possible that you will be better off filing seperately, but it depends on a number of different factors.

First, do you plan on signing up for an income-driven repayment plan? With Parent PLUS loans the only available IDR plan is the ICR plan.

Second, there are tax consquences to filing seperately. This is something you will want to discuss with your tax planner. Generally speaking, the idea is to compare the potential savings from lower payments against the potential extra spending on taxes.

I’ve previously written an article that breaks down the analysis for couples who are considering filing taxes seperately. Hopefully you fill find some useful insight in there.

Unfortuantely, if the loan is in your name, your husband’s work in Public Service won’t help get the debt forgiven.

If you look at your most recent tax return, the number they use is the AGI.

I’d also note that the Income-Driven Repayment Plans are not the only option. You can call your servicer, and they can tell you what the monthly payments would be on the various repayment options.

Is there any way to know how they base it on your income. He made a lot of money last year. Kind of a fluke. He made about 200,000 last year and we also have another child in school who has one year of federal loans so far. I just don’t want to consolidate and make them even more because we are not paying these our son is