IBR & Household size

[christina35]

Good afternoon, My husband & myself have student loans that are coming out of deferrment. (Well his are out of deferrment, mine are just now coming due)
We are looking to apply for IBR however I have a question regarding what qualifies as a Household size. 

My husband and myself have two daughters, He has two additional children he pays child support on. Through court order he also provides health insurance for the children. 

When applying for IBR and it asks our household size, do we put a family of four (him, myself and our 2 girls) , or do we claim a family of six (him, myself, our 2 girls and his two other kids). He has never claimed his two other kids on our income tax. 

I called Nelnet last week in regards to my loans and asked the same question. She put me on hold, only to come back and not really have an answer. I need to apply for the IBR, but i'm at a loss at which way to go. I don't want to put the wrong thing, get approved & then get asked for proof and we find out we did it wrong. 

Like I told the rep last week, we make good money on paper but when you factor in child support and daycare costs for our little one...not so much. 

Thank you in advance! It's much appreciated. 

[Anonymous]

Good afternoon Christine,
I don't know, but given what they say on the studentloans.gov repayment calculator I think your family size is 4. Here is the wording:
"The following questions will be used to calculate your family size . Do not Include yourself or your spouse (if applicable) in your responses to these questions. You and your spouse, as appropriate, are automatically included in your family size.

Dependent Children:
How many children, including unborn children, are in your family and receive more than half of their support from you?

Other Dependents:
How many people, excluding your spouse and children, live with you, and receive more than half of their support from you?"
https://studentloans.gov/myDirectLoan/repaymentEstimator.action

I can't be sure though. A great resource I've come to use is the chat feature on the website. If you try to keep it as simple as possible, they can be enormously helpful. Loan servicers are....useless. It's whatever answer is most likely to get you to hang up soon imo!
Another thing to think about is, if neither of you qualify for PSLF or other specific forgiveness you will still get forgiveness after 20 years for the Income-driven repayment plans (not to be confused with IBR, a type of IDR plan). So if your calculations say you will probably have something forgiven, I've found deferment just delays the 20 years to no benefit.
Your repayment amount can also be affected by which plan you pick because depending on the plan the lowest can be 15% or 10% of your discretionary income. Some plans will also take into account if you are married filing separately and not take into account your spouses income. Lastly, when using the calculator, keep in mind these estimates are taking into account the regular, significant raises and older generation typically got. The payment will not go up according to the calculator. It will be based on your income each year and you will probably have more forgiven than it says.