Introduced in 2009, income-based repayment was supposed to help change
that by allowing borrowers with high levels of debt but modest incomes
to make relatively small payments over a long term. But many borrowers
were never told about the income-based option, and many others have been
frustrated by the onerous requirements. So far, 1.6 million borrowers
have applied for income-based repayment; 920,000 are active participants
and another 412,000 applications are pending.
