I have been paying off my loan through the Rhode Island Student Loan Authority since XXXX, which is when I graduated from the University XXXX. Initially, I was paying $ XXXX/month, which was too much for me to handle, so I requested in XXXX that they lower it. They told me they could n't do that. 
In XXXX, I had to go into forbearance based on my income at the time. When that forbearance term ended, my payment had magically become $ XXXX/month with no indication as to why that happened. 
I found out today ( XXXX/XXXX/XXXX ) that they lowered it because of my forbearance term and that they could n't decrease my monthly payment any further. The person told me that 's because they can not extend the life of the loan behind 15 years. 
Basically, I do n't understand how they could n't lower my payment 5 years ago, but then they magically could a few years later. This is absurd and I can not handle paying $ XXXX/month right now.