It’s too early to know how the changes will impact borrowers, but the announcement will come amid confusion surrounding student-loan payment plans.

The Department of Education took a key step to initiate a process that could result in major changes to federal student loan forgiveness and repayment programs.

This move to gather feedback may be in response to President Donald Trump's March 7 executive order to limit eligibility for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, a debt relief plan that wipes out student loan balances for eligible teachers, nurses and other public servants after 10 years of on-time payments.