I am working full-time at a qualifying public service organization and recently resubmitted the employment certification form to update my information. What I discovered was that it states that I have only made 1 of the 120 qualifying payments. Currently, I receive a monthly bill stating I owe $0.00 because I am on the IRB repayment plan and did not earn enough in the 2011 tax year. I do expect that to change once the 2012 tax information I submitted is processed. I have listened to the webinars through this site and researched this information a lot so I was under the impression that the $0.00 repayments still counted as qualifying repayments. Is that incorrect? Any clarifications would be helpful…I’m confused on how to best proceed.

Hello Phillip.  Thank you for your inquiry.  This can certainly be frustrating to navigate.  Here are some recent forum posts in which Heather has discussed this topic with other borrowers in situations very similar to yours.  I hope this helps.

http://askheatherjarvis.com/forums/viewthread/53/#81
http://askheatherjarvis.com/forums/viewthread/8915/
http://askheatherjarvis.com/forums/viewthread/7988/#1350

Best,

James Jarvis
Communications Director
Heather Jarvis, Student Loan Expert LLC

When calculated payments due under an income driven repayment plan are $0, $0 counts as an on time payment.  On the other hand, when no payment is due because the loan is in deferment or forbearance or grace period, the loan is not in a “repayment status” and so payments can’t count even if you send a bunch of money.  Weird, huh?