Yesterday the Trump administration said it is going to take a new look at how the government interprets the virtually-impossible-to-attain “undue hardship” standard for discharging student loans in bankruptcy.
Where this all goes, and whether it will apply to people who have already filed bankruptcy, remains to be seen. As the law currently stands, anyone who has already filed for bankruptcy can seek an undue hardship determination at any time after their discharge, so hopefully that standard will remain in place, and the new standard will apply to people who have already gotten their discharge.
Until 1998, student loans that had been in active repayment for at least seven years were automatically discharged. I doubt we will return to that standard, as doing so would likely require a congressional amendment, but the Trump administration could certainly devise standards where a certain time period of having made payments is a factor to be taken into consideration.