The Burden of Waiting: Temporal Administrative Burden and Limbo in Student Loan Repayment

Research on administrative burden establishes that interactions with government impose learning, compliance, and psychological costs. However, less is known about how these costs persist or reemerge after an administrative encounter has seemingly ended. Drawing on interviews with 72 student loan borrowers, I examine how prolonged administrative uncertainty shapes experiences with income-driven repayment (IDR). Participants described changing rules, inconsistent information, delayed decisions, and uncertainty about whether previously recognized progress would continue to count. Such experiences complicated financial and life planning, strained psychological well-being, and weakened trust in the institutions responsible for administering repayment. Building on administrative limbo, I use temporal administrative burden to describe how established costs persist or recur while borrowers remain dependent on future government decisions. Findings suggest that uncertainty persisted after borrowers received a decision, as individuals remained unsure whether prior determinations would ultimately be upheld. In response, borrowers developed parallel monitoring systems to document progress, verify information, and support challenges to administrative decisions – and continued seeking confirmation after receiving answers. These outcomes suggest that long-duration public programs ask borrowers to plan their lives around government commitments while leaving them uncertain whether those commitments will be honored.