IDR Notice and Opportunity to Contest. Upon notice of an adverse action proposed by ED as a result of FTI produced under this matching program for purposes of ED determining eligibility for, or the payment amount on a Direct Loan being repaid under an IDR plan a borrower who would be adversely affected by such adverse action may contest the adverse action or indicate that the FTI used in support of the adverse action does not reflect their current financial circumstances by submitting alternative documentation of income (ADOI) to ED. If a borrower’s FTI was unavailable for retrieval from the IRS, ED provides notification to the borrower indicating the unsuccessful match and the corrective action that the borrower must take (i.e., explaining the ADOI upload process). Pursuant to 34 C.F.R. § 682.215(e), ED (or the respective servicer must notify the borrower no later than 60 days and no earlier than 90 days prior to the end of the borrower’s annual payment period to produce documentation to determine eligibility for the repayment plan. The documentation must be produced no later than 10 days following the annual deadline specified in the notice. ED will provide due process procedures for contesting the adverse action or the information received from the match. If, after receiving the notice of adverse action proposed by ED, the borrower expressly declines to contest or provide corrections to the results of the match, then ED may deny or terminate the borrower’s eligibility for an IDR plan which includes ED notifying the borrower of the new monthly payment amount, consistent with 34 C.F.R. § 682.215(e). However, pursuant to 34 C.F.R. § 682.215(e)(4)(iii), a borrower has the option to request, at any time, that ED redetermine whether the borrower has a partial financial hardship if the borrower's financial circumstances have changed and the income amount used to determine that the borrower no longer has a partial financial hardship does not reflect the borrower's current income and therefore a recalculated monthly repayment amount under an IDR plan.
