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Comment by ProblemFactory | Hacker News Reader

> Tell me how this is different from the rest of the student loan industry. My student loan is until I've paid it all back, or I reach 65, or I die. It adds a top up to my income tax, taking 9% of everything over £17kpa earnt.

Student loan industry in the UK. In the US and most other places, income-based repayment is not a thing, the payments are due no matter how much or little you earn.

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At least for now the US does have several income based repayment plans. The best one for most circumstances is PAYE (pay as you earn). It requires payments of 10% of disposable income, i.e. dollars earned after 150% of the poverty line, and the debt is discharged after 20 years of payments or 10 years while working for certain government or non-profit entities.

This program is partly the result of regulatory rule making and so could be sharply curtailed should the President or his underlings wish to do so.

I don't think that's accurate. When I graduated I got a zillion papers in the mail for applying for various hardship deferments and payment options. And then there's this https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2012/06/07/income-... which is explicitly income-based.

This occurs mostly in private student loans vs. federal ones. Private offers even fewer options than the federally mandated ones provide.

Income-based repayments are definitely 'a thing' in the US.

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