The Office of Personnel Management has issued a memorandum for
agencies to submit their fiscal year 2003 student loan
repayment reports by December 31. And it’s asking pointed
questions about the value of the program.
The required annual report must contain the following data for
fiscal year 2003 (October 1, 2002, through September 30, 2003):
the number of federal employees who received student loan
repayment benefits; the job classifications of the recipients,
and the total dollar amount of student loan repayment benefits
issued by department or agency. OPM also requested that
respondents describe the effect that the program had on
recruitment and retention efforts, the extent to which
agencies have developed a business case for the use of
available funds for this purpose, and their efforts to publicize
the loan repayment incentive.
OPM promotes the federal student loan repayment program as an
employee incentive. Agencies may authorize a student loan
repayment of up to $6,000 for an employee in any calendar
year with a lifetime limit of $40,000. In return for
assistance, employees must sign up for service in the paying
agency for three years, and reimburse the agency in the event
that they quit earlier than three years or are fired for poor
performance.
Agencies reported to OPM a significant increase in repayments
for fiscal year 2002. Sixteen federal agencies provided more
than $3.1 million on behalf of 690 employees, and several
agencies reported that use of the program has helped them
achieve their recruitment and retention goals, according to
OPM’s Director Kay Coles James.
Managers at the Department of State, for example, used the
program as an internal recruitment tool to attract employees
to difficult to fill positions. Because its Foreign Service
employees are required to bid for ongoing assignments, State
used the loan repayment program as incentive to fill difficult
assignments on time. Still, some agency managers said they
did not use the program because they did not want their
actions to be perceived as favoritism.
Reports may be faxed at (202) 606-0824 or emailed to
pay-performance-policy@opm.gov. Contact Gene Holson of OPM’s
Pay and Leave Administration Group at (202) 606-2858 for
more information. Info Online