How to Get a Student Loan Deferment

How to Request a Student Loan Deferment

You request a federal student loan deferment from your loan servicer, and every type except an automatic in-school deferment requires you to ask for it and send proof. Follow these steps in order:

1. Make sure each loan is a federal Direct Loan, using our guide to types of student loans. The deferment regulation covers Direct Subsidized, Direct Unsubsidized and PLUS loans, plus the consolidation loans built from them.
2. Make sure no loan is in default. A borrower in default cannot get a deferment until they make payment arrangements satisfactory to the Secretary of Education. Our guide on what happens if you don't pay your student loans explains default.
3. Pick the deferment that fits your situation: in-school, unemployment, economic hardship, or one of the other types the regulation names.
4. Ask your servicer for that deferment and send the documents it requests. For unemployment, that means evidence you qualify for unemployment benefits or a written certification about your job search. For economic hardship, that means proof of public assistance, your full-time income, or Peace Corps service.
5. Keep making scheduled payments if you can until the servicer confirms the deferment is approved. If you cannot pay while your request is processed, ask your servicer whether it will grant up to 60 days of forbearance to process your paperwork. Interest that accrues during that period is not capitalized.
6. Read the capitalization information the Secretary provides. The Secretary must explain how capitalization affects your loan at or before the time the deferment is granted.

An unemployment deferment can reach back in time. The first period may begin up to six months before your servicer receives the request, and it can be granted for up to six months after that date. Each approval stops at six months after the date you give your evidence or certification, so you ask again for each further period, up to the three-year total.

In-school deferment is the one type the regulation allows to be processed automatically. If yours does not start on its own while you are enrolled at least half time, ask your servicer for it like any other type.

Types of Federal Deferment

The federal regulation gives each deferment its own eligibility test and time limit. The three in the table below cover borrowers who are in school, out of work, or earning very little.

For the unemployment deferment, full-time employment means at least 30 hours a week in a job expected to last at least three months. You qualify in one of two ways. Show you are eligible for unemployment benefits, or give a written certification that you registered with a public or private employment agency, if one is available within 50 miles. For every request after the first, the certification must also show at least six diligent attempts to find full-time work during the previous six months.

You can qualify for unemployment deferment whether or not you held a job before. The regulation does not allow the deferment if you refuse to seek or accept work because you feel overqualified for it.

You can qualify for the economic hardship deferment in any of these ways:

• You receive a federal or state public assistance payment, such as Supplemental Security Income, Food Stamps or state general public assistance.
• You work full-time and your monthly income does not exceed the greater of the federal minimum wage rate or 150 percent of the poverty guideline for your family size.
• You serve as a Peace Corps volunteer.
• You already received an economic hardship deferment on a Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program or Federal Perkins Loan for the same period.

The regulation also names graduate fellowship, rehabilitation training, military service and post-active duty student deferments. Their rules sit in section 685.204.

What Happens to Interest During a Student Loan Deferment

You do not pay interest on a subsidized loan during a deferment, while an unsubsidized or PLUS loan keeps accruing interest that is either capitalized or paid by you. Capitalized interest is added to your principal, so the balance you repay after the deferment is larger than the balance you paused.

In our internal calculation, we modeled simple interest on four hypothetical unsubsidized balances over 6, 12 and 36 months. The model assumes no payments and adds all accrued interest to the principal at the end. The balances and rates are examples we picked. They do not describe any real borrower's loan.

You can reproduce any row with the simple-interest formula: balance × annual rate × months ÷ 12. For $30,000 at 6.50 percent over 12 months, that is $30,000 × 0.065 × 12 ÷ 12 = $1,950.

The table shows how much an unsubsidized balance grows during a pause. It is a model with no measured results behind it, and your servicer applies your loan's actual rate and capitalization rules.

Rules for Loans Disbursed from July 1, 2027

Federal loans disbursed on or after July 1, 2027 cannot receive an unemployment deferment or an economic hardship deferment under the current regulation. For those same loans, the forbearance rule in section 685.205 caps forbearance for poor health or other acceptable reasons (paragraph (a)(1)) at nine months within a 24-month period.

Loans disbursed before July 1, 2027 keep the older limits in the same regulation: up to three years of unemployment deferment and up to three years of economic hardship deferment. The cutoff follows the disbursement date of each loan. If you borrowed across several years, ask your servicer for the disbursement date of every loan before you pick a pause.

Our answer rests on the regulation text as read on October 28, 2026. If the Department of Education changes that text or moves the July 1, 2027 cutoff, the deferment options on your loans change too.

Student Loan Deferment Versus Forbearance

Deferment and forbearance both pause or shrink federal loan payments. In forbearance any interest that is forborne is capitalized, while in deferment you do not pay interest on a subsidized loan. The table compares the two under the federal regulations.

The regulation lists poor health or other acceptable reasons as one ground. A separate ground covers up to three years when your monthly loan payments equal 20 percent or more of your total monthly gross income.

On a subsidized loan, you do not pay interest during a deferment. On an unsubsidized loan, interest grows during either pause, so use the interest table above to size the cost before you choose.

Our Takeaway

If you hold federal Direct Loans and cannot make payments right now, ask your servicer for the deferment whose test you meet and send the documents. Keep making scheduled payments if you can until it confirms approval. This recommendation rests on the regulation text plus our own interest calculation. We did not test any servicer's process or survey borrowers.

The cost depends on the loan type. You do not pay interest on a subsidized loan during deferment, and an unsubsidized loan grows by the simple interest shown in our table. Loans disbursed from July 1, 2027 lose the unemployment and economic hardship options entirely.

This advice does not fit two groups. If your loans are private, the lender sets its own terms, so ask that lender what pause it offers. If a federal loan is in default, you need payment arrangements satisfactory to the Secretary before any deferment is possible.

Unemployment and economic hardship deferments each stop at three years in total. Before you use up that three-year total, compare the student loan standard repayment plan and our list of student loan forgiveness programs. Also read our guide on whether to refinance student loans.

Call your servicer today, name the student loan deferment you qualify for, and keep making scheduled payments if you can until it confirms approval.

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