KUAR | By Antoinette Grajeda / Arkansas Advocate

With student loan payments resuming in October after a three-year pandemic pause, Karen Sykes of Little Rock said she’s relieved by the creation of a new federal program that will significantly lower her payments and set an end date for settling her debt.

“There’s that light at the end of the tunnel,” she said.

Sykes is one of more than 38,000 Arkansans enrolled in the new Saving on A Valuable Education (SAVE) plan, an income-driven repayment program that calculates payments based on a borrower’s income and family size and forgives balances after a set number of years. The U.S. Department of Education estimates that most borrowers will save about $1,000 per year through the program.

Arkansans seek assistance from federal program as student loan payments resume (ualrpublicradio.org)