August 22, 2010

Twenty-three percent more federal employees in 2009 received repayment benefits on student loans as in the previous year, according to the Office of Personnel Management's (OPM) annual report to Congress released last week.

Overall, in 2009, the report states that 36 Federal agencies provided 8,454 employees with a total of more than $61.8 million in student loan repayment benefits. Compared to our last report for calendar year 2008, this represents a 23 percent increase in the number of employees receiving student loan repayment benefits and a 20 percent increase in agencies' overall financial investment in this valuable incentive. Nearly half of the reporting agencies either made student loan repayments in 2009 or have established a student loan repayment program for future use. The average loan repayment benefit was $7,317.

Section 5379 of title 5, United States Code, authorizes agencies to establish a program under which they may repay certain types of federally-made, insured, or guaranteed student loans in order to recruit or retain highly qualified personnel. The law also requires OPM to report to Congress annually on agencies' use of student loan repayments.

President Barack Obama has highlighted the importance of recruitment and retention tools and has asked each Federal agency to do its part to ensure "this Government is as efficient as possible and that every taxpayer dollar that is spent is being spent wisely."

"We will continue to work with agencies to assist them to take full advantage of this incentive, as well as other existing recruitment and retention tools, to attract and retain well-qualified, high performing employees," stated OPM's Director, John Berry, in the report.

Information on the student loan program can be found at:
http://www.opm.gov/oca/PAY/StudentLoan/index.asp

The full 2009 report can be found here.

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