How to Delay Student Loan Payments: Deferment or Forbearance

If you can’t make your federal student loan payments, you have two ways to pause them without going into default: deferment and forbearance. Both are requested through your loan servicer, and the one you should ask for depends on your situation. Deferment is the better deal when you qualify, because on subsidized loans the government pays the interest while your payments are paused. Forbearance is the fallback — easier to get, but interest accrues on every loan type and gets added to your balance when you resume. Private student loans work under different rules entirely, and any pause depends on what your lender is willing to offer.

Deferment or Forbearance: Which One You Want

Both options stop your required monthly payments for a set period. The cost difference comes down to interest.

During deferment, the federal government covers interest on Direct Subsidized Loans, so your balance holds steady. On unsubsidized loans, interest still accrues and capitalizes when the deferment ends.1eCFR. 34 CFR 685.204 – Deferment Forbearance carries interest on every loan type, subsidized and unsubsidized alike, and that interest capitalizes at the end.2eCFR. 34 CFR 685.205 – Forbearance

If you qualify for deferment, ask for deferment. Forbearance is what you request when your situation doesn’t fit any deferment category but you still need breathing room.

Who Qualifies for Deferment

Federal regulations list specific life circumstances that make you eligible for deferment on Direct Loans. You either fit one of these categories or you don’t.

  • Enrolled at least half-time at an eligible school. This one often processes automatically when your school reports your enrollment.
  • Actively seeking but unable to find full-time work. The unemployment deferment lasts up to 36 months over the life of your loan.
  • Economic hardship: you receive federal or state public assistance, or you work full-time and earn no more than 150% of the federal poverty guideline for your family size. Also capped at 36 cumulative months.
  • Active military duty during a war, military operation, or national emergency. Active-duty service members also get an interest cap of 6% per year on debt incurred before entering service.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 50 USC 3937 – Maximum Rate of Interest on Debts Incurred Before Military Service
  • Undergoing cancer treatment. The deferment covers the treatment period plus six months after.4Federal Student Aid. Cancer Treatment Deferment Request
  • Participating in a rehabilitation training program for individuals with disabilities.
  • Enrolled in an approved graduate fellowship program.

Every category except in-school deferment requires you to file a request with documentation. Even the in-school deferment is worth verifying with your servicer after your school reports your status, so you’re sure it posted.

Who Qualifies for Forbearance

Federal forbearance splits into two types: mandatory and general. Your servicer has to grant a mandatory forbearance if you qualify. General forbearance is up to their discretion.

Mandatory Forbearance

Your servicer must grant forbearance in these situations:

  • Your total monthly payments on all federal student loans equal or exceed 20% of your total monthly taxable income. This forbearance can last up to three years total.5Federal Student Aid. Grace Periods, Deferment, and Forbearance in Detail
  • You’ve been accepted into a qualifying medical or dental internship or residency and don’t qualify for a deferment.6Federal Student Aid. Mandatory Forbearance Request – Medical or Dental Internship/Residency
  • You’re serving in AmeriCorps and receiving a national service education award.
  • You’re a National Guard member called to active duty under state orders.
  • You’re performing qualifying teaching service under the Teacher Loan Forgiveness program, and your expected forgiveness would cover your remaining eligible balance.7Federal Student Aid. Teacher Loan Forgiveness Forbearance Request
  • You’re eligible for partial loan repayment under a Department of Defense Student Loan Repayment Program.

Mandatory forbearances must be renewed every 12 months. Plan to reapply annually even if nothing about your situation has changed.

General Forbearance

If you’re struggling financially but don’t fit any deferment category or mandatory forbearance rule, you can request a general forbearance. Your servicer decides whether to grant it, and they can approve up to 12 months at a time. You can renew as long as the hardship continues, subject to a cumulative cap of three years over the life of your loans.8Federal Student Aid. Loan Forbearance Financial difficulty, medical expenses, and changes in employment are common qualifying reasons.

Private Student Loans

Private lenders aren’t bound by federal deferment or forbearance rules. Most large lenders offer some form of hardship forbearance, but the terms come from your promissory note and vary widely — a few months in some cases, up to 12 cumulative months in others. Call your lender directly and ask what’s available. If you get a pause, expect interest to keep accruing and capitalize when payments resume.

How to Apply

Find Your Servicer

Every request goes through your loan servicer, not the Department of Education. Log in at StudentAid.gov and look for the “My Loan Servicer” section, which lists each servicer and their contact information.9Federal Student Aid. How to Make a Student Loan Payment Can’t access the site? Call the Federal Student Aid Information Center at 1-800-433-3243. If you have multiple federal loans, you may have more than one servicer, and each needs its own request.

Complete the Right Form

Each type of deferment and forbearance has its own request form, available at StudentAid.gov or through your servicer. Using the current version matters — outdated forms may be returned without processing.

Every form asks for your Social Security number, legal name, contact information, and loan account details. You’ll also need documentation specific to your situation:

  • Unemployment: proof of unemployment benefits or registration with a state employment agency.
  • Economic hardship: recent pay stubs or a letter from the agency administering your public assistance.
  • Military service: a copy of your orders or active-duty documentation.
  • Cancer treatment: written confirmation from your treating physician or facility.
  • School enrollment: usually reported by the school, but some servicers ask for an enrollment verification signed by the registrar.

Enter income figures exactly as they appear on your supporting documents. Mismatches slow processing or trigger a denial.

Submit

Most servicers offer an online portal where you can upload forms and documents. Many process certain deferment and forbearance requests entirely online, without a paper form, and online applications typically resolve much faster than mailed ones. If you’d rather send paper, use certified mail with tracking, or fax with a cover sheet listing your name, account number, and page count. Keep copies of everything.

What Happens Next

Manual processing usually takes about 10 business days from when your servicer receives the application. To keep you from falling behind while they review, your servicer can apply an administrative forbearance for up to 60 days. Interest that accrues during this short processing forbearance is not capitalized.2eCFR. 34 CFR 685.205 – Forbearance

If your request is denied, the notice should say why. Common reasons are missing documentation, an outdated form, or not meeting eligibility. You can resubmit with corrected paperwork, and if you believe a denial was wrong, you can escalate to the Federal Student Aid Ombudsman Group at 1-800-433-3243.10Federal Student Aid. Feedback and Ombudsman

What a Pause Actually Costs

A payment pause isn’t free. On unsubsidized loans and all loans in forbearance, interest keeps accruing every day you’re not paying, and when the pause ends that unpaid interest capitalizes, meaning it gets added to your principal. From that point on you pay interest on the larger balance.11eCFR. 34 CFR 685.202 – Charges for Which Direct Loan Program Borrowers Are Responsible

Consider a $30,000 unsubsidized loan at 5%. A 12-month forbearance generates about $1,500 in accrued interest. That $1,500 gets folded into your principal, and for the next decade you pay interest on $31,500 instead of $30,000. Over a standard 10-year repayment term, a single year of forbearance can add well over $1,000 in total extra interest. Three years makes it substantially worse.

You can limit the damage by making interest-only payments during the pause, even though you’re not required to. Even partial payments against the monthly interest reduce what capitalizes at the end. Student loan interest is also tax-deductible up to $2,500 per year, and capitalized interest counts as deductible interest when you eventually make payments — though you can’t claim the deduction in any year with no payments at all.12Internal Revenue Service. Publication 970, Tax Benefits for Education

Impact on Forgiveness Programs

This is where a pause can quietly cost you the most. For Public Service Loan Forgiveness, months in deferment or forbearance generally do not count toward the 120 qualifying payments.13Federal Student Aid. PSLF Buyback Every paused month pushes your forgiveness date back. The PSLF Buyback program lets some borrowers purchase back paused months, but only if you already have 120 months of qualifying employment and the buyback would push you across the forgiveness threshold. You can’t use it preemptively.

For income-driven repayment forgiveness, economic hardship deferment does count toward the 20- or 25-year repayment period. Most other deferment and forbearance types do not, though the Department of Education’s one-time IDR account adjustment credited certain historical periods for some borrowers.14Federal Student Aid. Income-Driven Repayment Plans

Consider Income-Driven Repayment First

Before requesting deferment or forbearance, look at whether an income-driven repayment plan fits your situation. IDR calculates your monthly payment from your income and family size, and if your income is low enough, that payment can be $0. A $0 IDR payment still counts toward both IDR forgiveness and PSLF, which forbearance does not.14Federal Student Aid. Income-Driven Repayment Plans

The trade-off is paperwork: IDR requires annual income recertification, and switching plans has its own application process. If you expect your income to stay low for a while, IDR almost always beats forbearance because the forgiveness clock keeps running. Forbearance is a better fit for short-term disruptions — a few months between jobs, a medical emergency — where you expect to return to normal payments quickly.

The SAVE plan, previously the most generous IDR option, was subject to a proposed settlement agreement in late 2025 that would end the plan. Check StudentAid.gov for current status and explore other IDR options like PAYE or IBR.

If You Just Stop Paying

Skipping payments without approved relief starts a countdown that gets ugly fast. Your loan is delinquent the day after a missed payment. At 90 days, your servicer reports it to the credit bureaus. At 270 days of missed payments on Direct or FFEL loans, you go into default.15Federal Student Aid. Student Loan Default

Default consequences are hard to reverse: the full balance becomes due immediately, the government can garnish your wages and take your tax refunds, and your credit report carries the default for years. If you’re struggling, apply for something — deferment, forbearance, or an IDR plan — even imperfectly and even late. Servicers process this paperwork every day, and any of these paths is better than going silent.