Consumer complaint received 2025-01-29 00:00:00
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Struggling to repay your loan — Can't temporarily delay making payments
Company: MOHELA
State: WI

Complaint narrative:
I have been enrolled in the Income-Based Repayment plan for many years. I need to re-apply annually to continue being enrolled in this program. After I re-enrolled in XX/XX/XXXX for the XXXX calendar year, it takes nearly a month to learn what your new payment amount will be. And after you receive the notice with information about your new payment, you are provided with less than 30 days notice of the new payment amount, which isnt a lot of time to be able to process and figure out how to absorb the higher payment, if indeed your payment amount will increase, as mine did by nearly XXXX the previous payment amount. 
Immediately after receiving notice of my pending new payment amount for XXXX, I immediately reached out to an ombudsman since I believed this amount to be incorrect. I also stated my position that I could not afford this new payment, since I was barely able to afford the 2024 monthly payment amount. 
I asked if mortgage or rents were taken into consideration, since currently, most consumers ( me included ) are paying 2 to 4 times more in rent or mortgage than we were paying prior to XXXX and XXXX. I was very rudely informed that this information wasnt considered and basically, didnt matter to the federal government. 
I currently rent, since I am priced out of the market as a single person trying to buy a home with the equally unaffordable current mortgage interest rates. And as such, I am at the mercy of whatever market rates are for apartments. Rents are outrageous since there are a lot of people in similar financial dire straights of being kept out of homeownership by housing prices and mortgage rates, therefore due to increased demand for rental properties, monthly rents have increased 2 and 3-fold. This information absolutely should be taking into consideration. Should someone be homeless just to be able to pay their student loan payment? Because currently that is the choice I am facing.either pay my rent OR pay my student loan payments, income-based as they may be. I can not afford both. I actually can not even currently afford food, I only eat because of my local food pantry. 
After I reached out to Mohela for assistance with my payment and to immediately inform them that I could not pay the increased amount for XXXX, and also to complain that 30 days is just not enough time to increase someones payment by nearly 3x the amount, it took well over a week to investigate and receive a response. This used up a lot of valuable time in my 30-day window notification of my pending payment increase. I find this response time completely unacceptable. 
The bottom line is I was told to use the online portal to seek an alternate payment plan or request for temporary postponement of payments. 
After utilizing the portal and applying for a temporary forbearance, I was denied a forbearance and given a reason of having used up my allotment of forbearance time ( due to being seriously ill for many years, nearly unable to work ), so I attempted to apply for economic hardship deferment. It seems the economic hardship deferment criteria has now changed and you need to be receiving public assistance or not working to qualify for economic hardship deferment. 
Which leaves me with trying to find another payment plan. 
I had also repeatedly DIRECTLY asked the Mohela service rep for other repayment options to lower my payment amount, and I shared with this person that I was aware that if I opted out of the current payment plan I was in, it would automatically revert my payments back to full payments, which I would be required to make at least one month of payments before I could apply for a different payment plan. However, this would only exacerbate the problem, since if I could not afford the reduced payment under the income-based payment plan, how was I supposed to afford a full payment for even one month? This is the horrible loop they put you in, with no way out, no empathy or XXXXXXXX XXXX  to the problem of not being able to afford the payment. 
In addition, now my car has serious mechanical issues, and I will need to find some money somewhere to fix it or I will also be out of a job. I drive a nearly XXXX old car, and I only have food because I visit the food pantry. 
There needs to be BETTER SOLUTIONS to real financial issues people are facing. This is not a joke to me and I am not trying to get out of paying. I have been repeatedly asking for help, and proactively BEFORE my next ( increased ) monthly payment, because I desperately do not want to default on my loans. 
I am being treated harshly and being railroaded at every turn. There have to be WORKABLE solutions for people who are struggling to pay and who are asking for help and needing options that fit their circumstances. 
There needs to be more forbearance and deferment time, especially for people like me who had extended health challenges that I didnt ask for. 
This entire system is broken and rigged against the borrowers.there needs to be at least XXXX to 90 days notice of payment increases on your loan, so people struggling to keep a roof over their head and food on their table can figure out where the money will come from. 
You should also be able to refinance student loan interest, just like you can refinance your mortgage interest. Without losing all your time in repayment. Why isnt this an option to help borrowers pay off their loans???

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation