2026 Federal Poverty Guidelines

Since this directly impacts payments under IDR plans (IBR, PAYE, ICR) I thought it was interesting that the 2026 federal poverty guidelines are updated:

Federal Register :: Annual Update of the HHS Poverty Guidelines

For a family of four, the 150% discretionary income "shielded" from calculation, used for IBR (the plan I am on) increases from $48225 to $49500. Meaning, when I recertify, even if our AGI goes up a little from 2024, my IBR payment could decrease, or barely increase.

I don't think this will impact RAP at all once RAP is implemented, but will impact how IBR and PAYE payments are calculated.