Can Income Based Repayment payment exceed your income when married?

Question

My understanding is that IBR payment is a percentage of your household income if married. In that case can the payment actually be more than your individual income if your spouse earns more? (Especially if you are unemployed and have $0 income).

I read somewhere that marrying someone does not make you responsible for their student loans, but in the above case seems like you will be responsible, and forced to pay for your spouse's loan. Can someone clarify. Thanks!

Update: The answer to whether you are expected to make payment without income (if your spouse has income) seems to be a YES.

The reasons for it however are unsatisfactory, and one of the following:

1. A twisted version of "spouse is not responsible but it is expected to come from spouse's paycheck" - however you hash this, this is bad logic.
2. Communal income - this makes more sense, but this applies only to 9 states in the US so not a comprehensive solution. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/communityincome.asp
3. You file taxes together, so you are collectively responsible - this is also fine(for sake of this argument), but goes against the claim that spouse is not responsible (this is actually a version of #1)

I don't intend to argue the validity of above answers especially #1, but if (only) there is any other answer please provide below. Thanks!

Answer 1

As someone who's spouse has a very large amount of student debt, I can verify that I am not responsible for my spouse's student debt.

That being said, The IBR plan does take my individual income into account, so she owes more per month when I earn money (and, conversely, when I was unemployed for 3 months her payment dropped below where it was when she was single). The responsibility to pay, and consequences of becoming delinquent on the loans, rest on her shoulders alone, even though both of our incomes factor into the payment amount when she certifies income for the year.

EDIT: To clarify something, responsibility for a loan is different from determining the amount owed each month. In the event of your sudden unemployment,your spouse has no responsibility to pay back your student loan. Your spouses credit won't get hit for delinquency and there can be no legal pursuit or garnishment of your spouses wages for paying back the loan. You, however, still must make the monthly payment, and the payment amount will be based on your communal income with your spouse.

A note that I should have brought up earlier, the repayment amount is based on your most recent tax return AGI. If you want your loan to be based solely off your income and not your spouses, you can simply file separately to only include your AGI in the equation, and not your communal AGI.

Answer 2

I read somewhere that marrying someone does not make you responsible for their student loans, but in the above case seems like you will be responsible, and forced to pay for your spouse's loan.

Your spouse is responsible for those loans.

But you married the person with (hopefully; if not, shame on you!) open eyes, knowing that the spouse's debts must come out of the "family pool of money".