WISCONSIN — Student loan repayments kick back in on Oct. 1 after a years-long pause over the course of the pandemic.

But a new federal repayment plan by the Biden administration could lower monthly payments for millions of borrowers.

Benjamin Lee, with the nonprofit Wisconsin Coalition on Student Debt, said the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) mostly benefits low-income borrowers.

“If you qualify for this plan, it’s almost for sure going to be the most generous and most beneficial,” Lee said.

According to Lee, interest is one of the main things that sets this repayment plan apart from other federal plans.

“Once your monthly payment is made, which could be as low as zero depending on your income and family size, no additional interest is going to accrue on the loan,” he explained.

Lee called that huge.

“Borrowers usually get frustrated and confused when they’ve been paying on their loans, but the balance keeps going up,” he said.

The Biden administration has also touted the forgiveness element to SAVE. Some borrowers’ remaining balance could be wiped out after at least 10 years of payments.

But overall Lee said he believes the country is in a worse spot post-pandemic when it comes to paying back student loans. He pointed out with those loans all but forgotten over the past three years or so, people have not budgeted for the expense.

“To restart the machinery of this sort of student loan repayment process and get people to sort of realize these payments are going to be due again, that’s a very big lift both on the industry side and for individual borrowers,” he said.

Watch the full interview above.