The Education Department had 530,295 income-driven repayment (IDR) applications waiting for a decision at the end of April 2026, according to its most recent status report to a federal court. That was down from 890,763 at the end of October 2025.
In April 2026 the department received 444,692 IDR applications and decided 456,594. Of the decisions, 401,561 (88%) were approvals and 55,033 were denials. Decisions outnumbered new applications in every month from November 2025 through April 2026.
The department also reported 11,500 Public Service Loan Forgiveness discharges in April and about 88,000 pending PSLF buyback requests. It said that buyback figure includes an estimated 18,000 to 19,000 duplicate requests.
Where the numbers come from
The American Federation of Teachers sued the department in 2025 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (case 1:25-cv-00802) over its handling of IDR applications and related requests. Under a court order of October 23, 2025 (ECF 55), the department files monthly status reports with these counts. They are the most detailed public figures on the IDR queue.
The latest report, filed May 19, 2026 (ECF 65), covers April 2026. No later monthly report had been filed on the docket as of October 27, 2026; the court has set a status conference for November 23, 2026.
The department has revised some figures. Its first report put pending applications at 1,076,266 at the end of August 2025; a December 2025 filing (ECF 58) corrected that to 748,311 and raised August decisions from 305,641 to 633,596. That filing did not give an October total directly; we derived it from the November figures. Pending counts are applications, not borrowers.
Income-driven plans set monthly payments based on income and family size. Borrowers apply to enroll, to switch plans, or to recertify income.
Monthly figures
| Month | Received | Decided | Approved | Denied | Pending at month end | PSLF discharges |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 2025 | – | 633,596 | – | – | 748,311 | – |
| October 2025 | – | – | – | – | 890,763 | – |
| November 2025 | 157,408 | 245,441 | – | – | 802,730 | 280 |
| December 2025 | 258,465 | 277,131 | 242,655 | 34,476 | 734,221 | 9,400 |
| January 2026 | 260,358 | 379,702 | 325,542 | 54,160 | 626,412 | 18,160 |
| February 2026 | 243,258 | 329,169 | 296,118 | 33,051 | 576,609 | 12,640 |
| March 2026 | 321,481 | 424,583 | 374,572 | 50,011 | 553,966 | 10,050 |
| April 2026 | 444,692 | 456,594 | 401,561 | 55,033 | 530,295 | 11,500 |
Dashes mean the figure was not reported for that month. Approvals and denials were first broken out for December 2025. The CSV adds PSLF buyback pending counts, the court document for each month and notes on revisions.
Source
U.S. Department of Education status reports filed in American Federation of Teachers v. U.S. Department of Education, No. 1:25-cv-00802-RBW (D.D.C.), ECF 42, 58, 60, 61, 62, 63 and 65, retrieved from the court docket via CourtListener on October 27, 2026. U.S. government court filings in the public domain. Our table is available under CC BY 4.0. Credit "My Credit Guide (mycreditguide.org)".
Steven Reynolds, "Income-Driven Repayment Application Backlog," My Credit Guide, October 27, 2026, https://mycreditguide.org/data/idr-application-backlog/.