There is a whole range of options, beginning at the time a student first consolidates their loan. If the agreed terms are not workable for the student—they get into, say, financial difficulty—they can for a short period of time make interest-only payments, or they could renegotiate the terms of their loan. Very few students avail themselves of those opportunities.
The primary measure for students who are having repayment difficulties is the repayment assistance plan. That program was introduced in Budget 2008 and was effective in the fall of 2009 for the 2009-10 school year. Under the repayment assistance plan, a student can apply to have an affordable payment that they have the capacity to repay based on their family income and family size. In the 2009-10 year, the first year that was implemented, about 160,000 students took advantage of the repayment assistance plan.