Paying back a burdensome federal student loan might get easier for some, beginning today.

Income-Based Repayment, a program that caps the monthly payments on student loan debt, is available depending on the amount of loan debt, adjusted gross income and family size. A calculator to determine approximate savings is available at www.ibrinfo.org/calculator_offline.vp.html.

Debt that includes Parent PLUS and private loans isn't eligible.

In some cases where the loan debt highly outweighs adjusted gross income, the program would erase payments completely. It also offers incentives to workers in the public service industry, including those employed with the government or those working for nonprofit 501(c)3 organizations.

Missouri Western State University students, a majority of whom get their federal financial aid through the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority, might not be inclined to participate in the new program. This is mostly because MOHELA already has an interest rate reduction program in place, said Angie Beam, interim director of financial aid at Western.

"It depends on what school they're going to and how far in debt they are as to whether or not this would be a good deal," she said, adding that MOHELA loans would have to be consolidated into a direct loan consolidation program to participate in the Income-Based Repayment program.

According to a news release regarding today's launch of the program, a single person earning $30,000 a year with $30,000 in debt could cut his or her monthly payments in half.

Del Morley, director of financial aid at Northwest Missouri State University, hasn't had any inquiries about the program and doesn't anticipate much student use of it. Students with loan debt coming out of Northwest, which is a direct lending school, have for years had available to them a similar program called the Income Contingent Program, which is seldom used, he said.

"The student who graduates with normal to average federal loan debt, most of them are going to be able to handle the payments," he said, "even if they don't get their dream job right away."

More information about the Income-Based Repayment program is available at www.ibrinfo.org/index.php.

Jimmy Myers can be reached at jimmym@npgco.com.