College students take out loans as an investment: they will likely graduate and reap the benefits – income that will help them pay off that debt and more.

But parents borrow money for their children without promising a higher income. And legally they are the ones who are hooked.

Bundeseltern PLUS loans are easy to come by: Universities often list them in grant letters along with scholarships and bachelor loans. They lack traditional credit history and income underwriting requirements. There is also no limit to how much a parent can borrow in total.

These factors make it easy for parents to borrow more than they can handle.

“I feel like parents feel more pressured to take on priceless debt when it comes to college than anything else,” said Betsy Mayotte, president and founder of the Institute of Student Loan Advisors.

Parent PLUS loans also offer fewer options for making payments manageable and are more complicated to navigate.

“Accessing all of these things is not insurmountable, but when you put it all together, parents have to overcome a lot of hurdles to get relief,” said Rachel Fishman, assistant director of research, education policy program at New America, a non-partisan think tank.

Here’s why Parent PLUS Loans can skyrocket, and how troubled parent borrowers can cut their payments and seek forgiveness.

Why Parent PLUS Loans pose a repayment challenge

Parent PLUS loans were originally intended to help middle- and upper-income parents who had no cash but assets, says Kristin Blagg, senior research fellow at the Center on Education Data and Policy at the Urban Institute, a nonprofit research organization. But over time, the target borrower for these loans shifted towards middle- and lower-income families.

“The logic of ‘OK, you have assets to rely on to repay that debt’ is breaking down for lower-income families,” says Blagg.

Parent PLUS loans are also the federal government’s most expensive type of loan: they currently bear an interest rate of 6.28% for the 2021/22 school year, compared to 3.73% for Bachelor loans. And they bear higher origination fees – currently 4.228%. Parents who meet traditional income and credit standards can private student loans at much lower rates with no formation fee – but parents with low incomes or spotty credit histories cannot.

Over the past seven years, the parent company’s PLUS loan debt has grown from $ 62.2 billion to $ 103.6 billion – a 67% increase compared to a 39% increase in student loans.

While there is little information about default rates among parents’ borrowers, both Mayotte and Fishman say there is ample anecdotal evidence that some borrowers have difficulty paying back these loans.

Lawmakers, student borrowers and activists have put sustained pressure on Washington to cut loans of up to $ 50,000, but there is no specific proposal going through Congress and no guarantee that PLUS loans will be taken out.

Current opportunities for parental borrowers

Here are the options parents now have:

Strive for income-based repayment waiver. Income-based repayment is a safety net for all federal student loan borrowers, but PLUS parent holders can only access the most expensive of the four plans: Income-based repayment, or ICR. This limits payments to 20% of your disposable income and lasts for 25 years.

ICR is particularly useful for older parents who can expect less income after retirement than when they took on debt. After a 25-year payment period, the mother debtors are released from the rest of their debts.

Qualify for public service loan issuance. Public Service Loan Forgiveness provides the ability to grant after 120 payments while the parent works for an eligible nonprofit or government employer.

However, this rejection is difficult to achieve: The federal data analysis shows that as of April 29, 2021, only 1.16% of all applications were approved. It is unclear how many of these applications or permits are PLUS borrowers.

Parent PLUS borrowers must first consolidate their loans into a direct consolidation loan and sign up for an income-based repayment in order to make qualifying payments.

Take advantage of the closed school and borrower defense. If schools suddenly close or engage in fraudulent practices, student loan borrowers, including parents, may not have to repay their debts.

Under the closed school firing rules, if the school closes while a student is still in class, all or some of the PLUS parent loans used to pay for the program would be fired under the closed school firing scheme, according to the Department of Education .

If a student loan borrower is misled by their school or the institution violates state law, parent loans can be released for repayment through a forgiveness program called Borrower Defense. Under borrower’s defense guidelines, Parent PLUS loans would also be redeemed if a student’s claim is approved.

Qualify for a disability discharge. Parental loan borrowers who are disabled may be eligible full and permanent disability dismissal. Eligible Borrowers must have a physical or mental impairment that prevents them from working.

The social security authority or a doctor must check whether the physical or mental impairment meets certain requirements.

Refinance privately on behalf of your child. The only other way to get rid of your debt is to refinance with a private company on your child’s behalf. That way, your child would be legally responsible for paying back the debt originally taken on.

Few private lenders do this, and if you do, the loan will no longer be eligible for income-based repayment or possible federal government waiver. Your child must have a strong credit score, timely loan payments, and an income to make payments.

The article Parents In Debt For Their Children’s College Can Be Forgiven, originally appeared on NerdWallet.