Consumer complaint received 2019-12-27
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: FL
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:
I am writing to complain about the incorrect recalculation of my student loan payment pursuant to my income recertification under the Income Driven Repayment Plan. This complaint is also being submitted to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ( CFPB ). 
I submitted my first income recertification for XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX to FedLoan Servicing ( FedLoan ), and was informed that my new monthly payment amount would be {$1800.00}. My prior monthly payment amount was {$730.00}. I contacted FedLoans on XX/XX/XXXX to question the new payment amount, given the significant increase ( a percentage change of 250 % ).

The FedLoan representative I spoke to confirmed that they had received my income recertification and that it appeared the calculation of the new monthly payment failed to take into account the student loans my wife has ( she also has federal student loans which are being repaid pursuant to the Income Driven Repayment plan ). The representative informed me that I needed to submit a request for immediate reconsideration of the income driven repayment calculation, which I did that same day ( XX/XX/XXXX ). 
In the request for reconsideration ( which was submitted using the Department of Education IDR template form ), I checked the box to confirm that I am married, that my spouse has federal student loans, input my wifes SSN and other personal information, that we are married borrowers filing jointly, and we both signed and dated the form. We also provided the required income documentation. This is in addition to the full and complete tax information for my spouse and I that I provided with my original recertification application. 
A few hours later, I received an update that because of my second income driven repayment calculation that the monthly payment amount would be {$1800.00}. 
In submitting the income documentation, I confirmed that my household income ( my wife and I combined ) increased approximately 26 % year over year ( XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX ).  However, this percentage income increase does not support an increase of monthly payment amount of 250 %. 
Neither myself or my wife have received a request for FedLoans to access my wifes student loan information in the National Student Loan Data System, which leads me to believe that the recalculation methodology which results in a monthly payment of {$1800.00}, has again failed to include my wifes federal student loans and their repayment amounts in the calculation. This again resulted in an erroneously high monthly payment amount. 
I have submitted all the required paperwork and provided all required consent so FedLoan can properly calculate my new Income Driven Repayment Plan monthly  payment amount. 
I am requesting that that FedLoan follow their calculation methodologies ( which includes calculation of the monthly payments required on my wifes federal student loans ), and review my prior submissions. I am also requesting that that FedLoan provide a  detailed calculation explanation for how the new monthly payment amount was determined.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation