Consumer complaint received 2019-08-27
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: MN
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Trouble with how payments are being handled

Complaint:
Hello- I have approximately {$75000.00} in student loans and my husband has approximately {$200000.00} in student loans, both being serviced with Fedloan Servicing. Prior to getting married, we filed our taxes as Individuals and were each on our Income-Driven Repayment plans with Fedloan Servicing. We got married in XX/XX/XXXXand so filed our taxes as XXXX XXXX XXXX for the first time for the XX/XX/XXXXtax year. At the beginning of XX/XX/XXXX, my husband was let go from his job. In XX/XX/XXXXof XX/XX/XXXX, I got a letter from Fedloan Servicing stating that I should start gathering material for re-certifying my Income-Driven Repayment plan. They stated that all information needed to be in by XX/XX/XXXX or else my loan payment would increase to {$800.00} per month starting XX/XX/XXXX ( this year I've been paying {$380.00} under my IDR ). I submit income information for IDR every year, and it's never been a problem before. This year, I submitted the income information for both my husband and myself- which included our XX/XX/XXXXtax return, my most recent paystubs from XX/XX/XXXX, and his unemployment insurance benefits letter stating his new income. All information was submitted well before XX/XX/XXXX ( I want to say around the end of XX/XX/XXXXXXXX, because I was nervous they might have trouble with the various changes to our income. On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a letter saying that my new payment would be {$650.00} per month. This was terrifying, because our annual joint income right now is approximately {$74000.00} XXXX {$60000.00} for me and {$14000.00} for his unemployment ). My income last year was something like {$58000.00} and my IDR payment was {$380.00} a month. I thought perhaps Fedloan Servicing did not account for the fact that my husband 's income dropped so much, so I called them on XX/XX/XXXX to find out what was going on. They told me that the payment had not been calculated correctly- they correctly incorporated both of our incomes, but they did not account for both of our loans. They told me it should be closer to {$170.00} per month XXXX his recalculated IDR loan payment will be a bit higher, this is just for mine ). Fedloan Servicing told me they would put in an expedited request to have the calculation redone, and told me it should take about a week. I didn't hear back from them after a week, and so sometime last week ( I think XX/XX/XXXX ), I called to check in on the status of the recalculation. At that time, they told me that I should receive a letter today ( XX/XX/XXXX ) with the new monthly payment. I didn't receive anything, and so I gave them a call. The person I spoke with told me that they had again not calculated it correctly because they didn't take my husband 's loans into account. They told me they put in an expedited request to have it reviewed again, and that it should take me a week to hear back the results. I don't know what to do. Last time it took 20 days when they said it would take 7. It seems like they don't know what they are doing, and now I only have a month left before I'm supposed to start paying {$650.00} per month, which we can't afford. Please help me. Thank you, XXXX

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation