Listen in with student debt expert Dr. Tony Bartels in this next installment of our Student Debt Series covering the latest news and information on student loans.
In this episode we have seven major topics we’re addressing:
- Removal of the IBR (Income Based Repayment) Partial Financial Hardship test
- SAVE ending soon?
- WikiDebt: What is your IDR (Income Driven Repayment) profile?
- Good time to review student loan options
- Preparing for more changes this year
- How to get help
As always, we want to hear from YOU. Please share your thoughts by sending an email or joining the conversation.
GUEST BIO:
Dr. Tony Bartels
Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA graduated in 2012 from the Colorado State University combined MBA/DVM program and is a VIN Foundation Board Member and Student Debt Expert, and an employee of the Veterinary Information Network (VIN). He and his wife, a small-animal internal medicine specialist practicing in Denver, have more than $400,000 in veterinary-school debt that they manage using federal income-driven repayment plans. By necessity (and now obsession), his professional activities include researching and speaking on veterinary-student debt, providing guidance to colleagues on loan-repayment strategies and contributing to VIN Foundation resources. Beyond debt, his professional interests include small- and exotic-animal practice. When he’s not staring holes into his colleagues’ student-loan data, Tony enjoys fly fishing, ice hockey, camping and exploring Colorado with his wife, Audra, daughter, Lucy, and their two rescued canines, Addi and Maggie.
LINKS AND INFORMATION:
Check your current student loan servicers and other loan details — VIN Foundation My Student Loans tool
Please consider a donation to support this podcast
VIN Foundation Blog, Related Student Debt Blog posts:
- 2025 Year End Wrap & Preparing for 2026
- 2026 Federal Poverty Rates Published
- 40 veterinary school simulations in 60 days project
- Changes to federal student loans come into focus
- Student Loan Repayment: Trying to leave the SAVE forbearance? Choose PAYE
- Student Loans in SAVE Plan Will Start Accruing Interest August 1st
- Application for Federal Income-Driven Repayment Plans Reactivated
Personalized student loan Help from VIN and VIN Foundation
Income-Driven Repayment Plan Discretionary income calculations, WikiDebt
Federal Student Aid Data, Consolidation, and Repayment Applications
One-time Forgiveness Count Adjustment
Federal Student Loan Servicers
Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF)
Get updates to stay tuned for the VIN Foundation webinars on student debt.
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TRANSCRIPT
Intro
Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA: So for any student that’s starting veterinary school after July 1st of 2026, or taking their first loan for veterinary school after July 1st of 2026, they are going to be subject to new federal student loan borrowing limits. So those limits are $50,000 per year, and unfortunately, most veterinary schools’ cost of attendance exceed that $50,000 limit, which means those students who are subject to those new borrowing limits will need to find that additional funding elsewhere. So that usually involves something like a private student loan, and unfortunately, those private student loans are not nearly as beneficial as your federal student loans.
Meet the Hosts and Podcast Overview
Jordan Benshea: That is student debt expert and VIN Foundation Board Member, Dr. Tony Bartels, and this is the VIN Foundation’s Veterinary Pulse Podcast special student debt series. I’m Jordan Benshea, Executive Director of the VIN Foundation. Join me as I talk with veterinary colleagues about critical topics and share stories, stories that connect us as humans, as animals, as a veterinary community. This podcast is made possible by individuals like you who donate to the VIN Foundation. Thank you. Please check the episode notes for bios, links, and information mentioned. Welcome everybody.
Major Changes in Student Loans
Jordan Benshea: We are back again with our VIN Foundation Board Member and student debt expert, Dr. Tony Bartels, to talk about the latest in student loans and some big changes that are coming for colleagues that are going to start borrowing after this July. Welcome Tony.
Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA: Hi. Thanks for having me back again.
Jordan Benshea: Yeah. Again and again.
Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA: Yeah.
Jordan Benshea: As we know, there’s been many changes in the student loan landscape. For sure since COVID. Definitely in the last several years, and the bill that was passed into law last on July 4th, 2025 had some really big changes in it for student loans. Today we have six major topics that we’re going to cover. We’ve had a lot of colleagues reaching out, a lot of uncertainty, and part of our goal is to help educate with the best info that we have at the time. So the six major topics that we’re going to be addressing today are, one, the removal of the IBR Partial Financial Hardship test. Two, is the SAVE plan ending soon? Three, talking about Wikidebt and what is your IDR profile, Income Driven Repayment profile. Four, it’s now a good time to review your student loan options. Five, what sort of preparation do we need for 2026 and the changes we have coming? And six, how can colleagues get help? As always, let’s dive right in.
Topic 1: Removal of the IBR Partial Financial Hardship Test
Jordan Benshea: Tony, let’s start with the removal of the IBR Partial Financial Hardship test.
Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA: Yeah, that’s a good one. So, as part of the bill that was passed this summer, they set some expiration dates on income driven plans that many of us have come familiar with over the years. They updated IBR to remove the Partial Financial Hardship test, and the removal of the Partial Financial Hardship test was supposed to happen as soon as the bill passed, whereas some of the phase out of the existing Income Driven Repayment options are not going to happen until some years down the road. But the Partial Financial Hardship test essentially established criteria for allowing borrowers to use IBR. That became really important because with all of the uncertainty around SAVE and the number of borrowers, particularly veterinarians, who are using the SAVE repayment plan with having to look beyond that as a repayment option, many of our colleagues were looking to use IBR and they were not able to do so because the changes that were made by law weren’t yet implemented in the Department of Education system. So when they applied for another repayment option, maybe to leave the SAVE repayment plan, they weren’t seeing IBR as an available option, and that is because of this change. It didn’t really take effect yet until the very end of December of 2025 when they finally got the system updated, at least according to the Department of Education. So if you had tried to apply for IBR at any point between July and the end of the year and you weren’t seeing IBR as an option, try again. You should be able to see IBR as a repayment option for you no matter what your income information is, no matter what your remaining student loan balance is now that, that system has been updated. So that’s kind of the big, just be aware. Yes, it was screwed up before. It should be fixed now. You should see IBR as an option. Now, what is the Partial Financial Hardship test? Well, essentially it calculates your payment using your income information, and if that payment using IBR would be greater then the standard 10 year plan payment, then you previously weren’t allowed to use IBR. But that’s the part that was eliminated. So no matter what your debt to income ratio is, you should now see IBR as an option with the highest payment possibly being what it would’ve been under a standard 10 year plan payment. That’s very helpful for those that have spent a lot of time in repayment, might be approaching forgiveness, so 25 years of eligible Income Driven Repayment plan payments. Being able to use IBR to finish off those last few years or few months even of payments to reach forgiveness, now that’s possible since the Partial Financial Hardship test has been removed and Department of Education system should now reflect that removal.
Jordan Benshea: That’s great. That’s probably going to be a big help to a lot of colleagues and it can be so scary to think that you’ve got this financial option and then to go there and it’s just gone.
Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA: Yeah, indeed, and this really just kind of highlights the messiness of all of the things going on with student loans right now. And the fact that we’re making some major changes to a system that, let’s be honest, it certainly was far from perfect before and now we’re kind of throwing it in a blender and hoping that it’s going to work for people and unfortunately it’s just not. It’s not easy to navigate, so hopefully that particular instance has now been resolved and we can try to get to that next step, which for many people was trying to get their loans into that IBR repayment option.
Jordan Benshea: And we have said it, but just so that everybody knows, IBR is Income Based Repayment. We’ll have that in the episode notes as well because we try to clarify that when we do have acronyms because there’s quite a few.
Topic 2: The Uncertain Future of the SAVE Plan
Jordan Benshea: Okay, number two, SAVE, is it ending soon? We had sort of touted SAVE as like, oh my gosh, this is an amazing plan, definitely do it, and then, ERRT. So where are things on SAVE?
Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA: Yeah, they’re still in the ERRT category. So SAVE was blocked by a federal appellate court in July of 2024, and anybody that was using SAVE at that point was placed into a forbearance. That forbearance was non-interest bearing for a long time, but you also didn’t earn forgiveness credit during that special SAVE forbearance. Since that court blocked the SAVE plan in July of 2024, the Department of Education decided to turn the interest accrual back on starting on August 1st of 2025. Just recently, so December 9th I believe it was of 2025, the litigation around SAVE reached a settlement agreement that would end SAVE sooner rather than later. So that settlement is still pending approval by a judge, but if and when that is approved, SAVE would likely be ended sooner rather than later. Now, I don’t know exactly when that’s going to be. As part of the legislation that was passed in July of 2025, SAVE was scheduled to be eliminated regardless in July of 2028. So it’s quite likely that it’ll be eliminated well before then. It’s not eliminated yet. If your loans are still in the SAVE forbearance, you can leave them in the SAVE forbearance. Nobody is forcing you to choose another repayment option just yet. Just be aware that if and when this settlement is finally approved, it is quite likely that SAVE will be wound down probably this year, not sure when, rather than lasting until sometime in 2028. So it’s time to start thinking about, okay, if I do need to choose another repayment option by, I don’t know, this summer or later this spring, what would that be? So, that’s where starting to get your information together, knowing what your additional repayment options are, will be very helpful in setting yourself up for success and not hitting that panic button once you get that notification that you have to choose a different option other than the SAVE repayment plan.
Jordan Benshea: Yeah, and for colleagues listening who are thinking, well great, what is my best option, we will definitely have podcasts and webinars and blog posts and additional information as we get closer to that and help you guide that and give you the information as we have it.
Topic 3: Understanding Your IDR Profile with Wikidebt
Jordan Benshea: Next up we have Wikidebt. So Wikidebt is this wonderful resource that we have on the Student Debt Center, which has kind of a wiki about shockingly student debt. So one aspect of that, that we’re going to talk about today is, what is your IDR profile or your Income Driven Repayment profile?
Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA: Right, and this leads into, what plan do I choose next? So if I’m going to have to choose another repayment option other than SAVE, then what is my next best repayment option, and that’s where the IDR profile comes into play. Now, the IDR profile is a VIN Foundation construction. This is not something that lives in the Department of Education universe. It’s something that we created to help borrowers, veterinarians try to make a little bit more sense of their student loans. So based on what types of student loans you have when you started borrowing, that will all determine what we call your IDR profile, and your IDR profile will then suggest here are the options that you have remaining currently. So if you wanted to choose another plan right now, which options would those be, as well as if you wanted to choose a different repayment option, say later this year, what options might those be? So the IDR profile helps to give you an idea, if I have to choose a repayment option soon, what will those options be? So we have a number of IDR profiles. IDR profile 1 is the most flexible and it’s because it gives you access to the most beneficial remaining repayment options. So what are those? Those would be IBR 2014, so the newer version of IBR, Pay As You Earn, and ICR. Now, Pay As You Earn and ICR are scheduled to be eliminated in July of 2028, so just like SAVE. Those are part of the collection of Income Driven Repayment options that the Congress and the President signed into law that will be eliminated as part of the updated legislation. There is also a new repayment option, the Repayment Assistance Plan, that was created as part of that update to the legislation. So that isn’t available yet. That’s supposed to come online in 2026, by July 1st of 2026. So if you were in IDR profile 1, the Repayment Assistance Plan would also include access to that new option, the RAP option, once it becomes available. So for anybody that is in IDR profile 1 and wants to choose another repayment plan before RAP becomes available, then Pay As You Earn is your next best step. So I would suggest that you choose Pay As You Earn as your next repayment option. Then we have IDR profile 2. IDR profile 2 allows you to use Pay As You Earn, the old version of IBR, which we call IBR 2009, ICR, and eventually the new Repayment Assistance Plan. If you’re in IDR profile 2, once again, I’ll suggest that you use Pay As You Earn as your next best repayment option, particularly if you’re choosing a repayment plan before the new RAP option is available. If you’re in IDR profile 3, so that’s my IDR profile, that provides you access to the old version of IBR, so what we call IBR 2009, as well as ICR, and then eventually the new Repayment Assistance Plan once it becomes available. For those borrowers, if you can sit tight in the SAVE forbearance, great. If not, you’re looking at using the old version of IBR or ICR, but RAP is probably going to be a better option if you can wait that long. And just as I covered in the SAVE ending soon section, you may not be able to wait that long so you may need to use either IBR or ICR as a bridge to get you to the new Repayment Assistance Plan once it becomes available later this year. There are additional IDR profiles that are very, very uncommon. So IDR profile 4, hopefully nobody finds themself in that one. Those of you that might have Parent Plus Loans only would find yourself in an IDR profile 5. Again, that’s pretty uncommon. Unless you’re a veterinarian who is borrowing for your children, you probably don’t have those Parent Plus loans. And then we’ll have a whole new IDR profile that will exist in the future here for future graduates that will only have access to the new Repayment Assistance Plan. So that one doesn’t exist yet, but it will be coming in the future. So those IDR profiles are, I know it’s really confusing and it’s hard to pick through all that, but they’re really meant to simplify this repayment circus that we’re all kind of living through right now.
Jordan Benshea: Yeah, and we will put a link in the episode notes to the Wikidebt IDR profile so you’ll be able to comb through all of that with hopefully more clarity, because I know it can be a lot with a lot of acronyms as we rattle them off on an episode. But all that information, Tony’s taken a lot of time to clearly lay that all out and so we’ll make sure there’s links for that.
Topic 4: Reviewing Your Student Loan Options
Jordan Benshea: All of this kind of brings us to, this is probably a good time to review your student loan options.
Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA: Indeed. This is one of the best times to be in a position to select an Income Driven Repayment option. These timeframes in the calendar that straddle the end of one year and the beginning of another are really beneficial when we look at the income driven plans and the income documentation that you’re allowed to use to have your payment calculated. So when you submit income information for an Income Driven Repayment plan, they will always accept your most recently filed tax return. Alright, so we just closed the book on 2025. Nobody’s filed their tax return yet for 2025, which means the most recent tax return you probably have on file is from back in 2024. If your income has increased since you filed your tax return in 2024, then it’s a great opportunity to use some older income information that represents a lower number when you’re submitting your income information for that Income Driven Repayment plan now. If your income has decreased since you filed your tax return in 2024, well, you’ve got your W2 that’ll probably be available shortly if you haven’t already received it for your earnings that you had in 2025. Maybe you switched jobs recently and your paycheck is a little bit different, you’ve got a pay stub in early 2026 that you could use that would be a better representation of your current income. And then you also will be filing that 2025 tax return, probably by April 15th of 2026 here, where you can then use that recently filed tax return. So maybe if you got married in 2025 and it’s going to make sense for you to file separately from your spouse, it might be helpful to have that new 2025 tax return on file before you then apply for that next Income Driven Repayment option on your list. So lots of different opportunities here at this time of year to check those various pieces of income information you have at your disposal, and then choose the one that’s going to be most beneficial for your Income Driven Repayment strategy.
Topic 5: Preparing for 2026 Changes
Jordan Benshea: And we want to also talk about, number five is, preparing for more changes this year. I mean, I feel like we’re kind of good, but apparently we don’t control that.
Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA: Yeah, no and just the changes we know about. So from a repayment standpoint, we’ve got SAVE probably ending sooner rather than later as we covered previously, but we’re still waiting for that settlement to be approved and then what the details are following that. But we also have the Repayment Assistance Plan, which is scheduled to come online by at least July 1st of 2026. Hopefully it’ll come online earlier, we don’t have any indication of that yet, but the sooner it’s available, the better because it’s going to provide a good repayment option, particularly for those that are in that IDR profile 3, which many, many borrowers are. So the sooner we have access to that, by some magical phenomenon we’re able to choose RAP as SAVE is ending, that would be ideal. But I don’t want anybody’s hopes to get up. I don’t think that’s going to happen, but we can cross our fingers really hard and wave that magic wand and hope that it does. We also have a big change coming for borrowers this fall. So for any student that’s starting veterinary school after July 1st of 2026, or taking their first loan for veterinary school after July 1st of 2026, they are going to be subject to new federal student loan borrowing limits. So those limits are $50,000 per year, and unfortunately, most veterinary schools’ cost of attendance exceed that $50,000 limit, which means those students who are subject to those new borrowing limits will need to find that additional funding elsewhere. So that usually involves something like a private student loan, and unfortunately, those private student loans are not nearly as beneficial as your federal student loans. So that’s something that we’re all going to be working through together and we’re going to try to get as much information as we can out to those students who will be entertaining offers for starting veterinary school this fall. They’re starting to receive those offers now, and we’re going to try to get some information to them to help them understand what that new borrowing landscape is going to look like, so hopefully they can use that information in selecting a veterinary school that hopefully will help them not have to rely on private student loans at all, or at least minimize the amount of private student loans that they may need to take in order to pay for their veterinary education, because it’s going to get a lot more complicated to not only borrow to pay for that education, but then repay all of those different student loans after they finish that veterinary education if they are able to pay for it. So, a completely different world that we’re looking at when it comes to funding and then repaying the student loans associated with paying for those veterinary educations.
Jordan Benshea: Yeah, it’s really the wild, wild west out here, and there’s a lot of unknown and I think we’re trying to do the best we can to help those pre-vets know a big change is coming. And unfortunately you do have to pay a lot of attention now, so we’re working on some stuff for that.
Topic 6: How to Get Help with Student Debt
Jordan Benshea: How can colleagues go to get help?
Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA: Yeah, so, the Student Debt Center that we talked about a lot today, so the VIN Foundation Student Debt Center is a great place to get started. We also have special student debt message board areas for veterinarians, veterinary students, even pre-veterinary students to ask questions about what they’re seeing, what they’re experiencing with their federal student loans. And we have a lot of experience to pull on in terms of the good, the bad, the ugly in not only taking out federal student loans, but repaying them afterwards. So those message boards are one of the best places that you can get individualized, personalized assistance for those questions that you have. You could post anonymously in those special student debt message board areas. We just need you to create a username and password. If you have one through VIN already, that’s great, then you have access. If you don’t, then we can get you access through the VIN Foundation for free to those special student debt message board areas so you can get your questions answered.
Outro and Final Thoughts
Jordan Benshea: And what else do we want our listeners to know?
Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA: Yeah, stay tuned. You cannot assume that anybody who went through this 2, 3, 5, 15 years ago has any idea what it looks like now. We’re kind of building the plane as we fly it so to speak, and it’s complicated. So you have to be very, very careful about the advice that you hear from those that probably borrowed under very different circumstances than you borrowed under, and your individual circumstances play a huge role in this. So just because something worked for one person doesn’t mean it’s going to necessarily work for you. So, double check everything that you’re hearing and being told, particularly when it comes to your loan servicer. So if you’re in repayment, I mean, they were never very good to begin with, but changing things rapidly and then expecting them to have the most current and accurate information is not something that you should expect from your loan servicers. So the message boards are also a great place for you to say, “Hey, this is what I’ve been told, does that sound right?” And we can give you a pretty good assessment on what the rules currently say and help you with some information to go back to those loan servicers to maybe get any errors corrected in your student loan repayment applications.
Jordan Benshea: And as always, we want to tell colleagues where to go for updates. This podcast, the blog posts, the webinars, where else should they be paying attention to Tony?
Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA: Yeah, I think studentaid.gov, they’ve got an announcements page that is pretty good. When they do post announcements you can glean some information from that. But it does kind of require you to really know what all of it means. So if you do, that’s great, but that’s the rare person, right? So, again, I can’t encourage you enough to come on over and visit us in the student debt message board area to ask questions about what you’re seeing because then we can take those announcements, match it up against your specific scenarios, and then put all the pieces together so we can help paint a more complete picture for you. But it is good to keep an eye on studentaid.gov. They are making some changes in there as well, so when you log into studentaid.gov, it’s always a good idea to do a good tour of your dashboard to see what information is available there and what you learn or what questions come up. It’s also one of the best places to initiate your applications for an Income Driven Repayment option. The application function may not always respond the way that you’re expecting, but it’s the place that you want to start. So if you have any questions or you’re seeing something there that confuses you, then come back over and visit us on the student debt message board area and we’ll help you navigate that.
Jordan Benshea: Wonderful. Thank you so much again, Tony, for your time. We’re here to help you guys and we know it can be very confusing and frustrations and emotions can run high when it relates to money, so…
Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA: Indeed. Indeed.
Jordan Benshea: We’re definitely here to help, and as always we really appreciate your time and effort in tuning into these resources, and if you do enjoy this podcast and want it to continue and want to support that, please consider a donation to the VIN Foundation. We’ll put that link. Don’t worry, it’ll definitely be in the episode notes. I know that’s your top concern, but every little gift helps. We are a nonprofit and we do rely in nonprofit, on donors, individual donors, and gifts and grants. So any donation would help. Thank you, and Tony, as always, thank you for your time and effort and your dedication to supporting colleagues in this.
Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA: Well, thank you in helping to get the word out and, yeah, until next time. I’m sure there’ll be a next time. I mean, hopefully it won’t be too soon. I’m sure there will be an update to come here soon, so we’ll look forward to talking about student loans the next time we meet.
Jordan Benshea: Thanks everyone. Bye.
Tony Bartels, DVM, MBA: Bye.
Jordan Benshea: Thank you for joining us for this episode of The Veterinary Pulse. Please check the episode notes for additional information referenced in the podcast. If you enjoyed this podcast, please follow, subscribe, and share a review. We welcome feedback and hope you will tune in again. You can find out more about the VIN Foundation through our website, VINFoundation.org, and our social media channels. Thank you for being here. Be well.