Few Student Loan Reimbursements Paid

Only about half of agencies are using of their authority to reimburse employees for student loan costs as a recruiting and retention tool, and even among them most are making the payments to relatively few employees, according to a new Office of Personnel Management report on the program. Agencies are authorized to pay up to $6,000 a year and $40,000 lifetime to employees for that purpose, but OPM found that in fiscal 2002, only 16 of the 57 major agencies it contacted had made such payments, while another 13 were in the process of starting their programs. The State Department was the heaviest user, paying out $2 million to 407 employees, while the General Accounting Office paid out about $600,000 to 169 employees. In total, 690 employees across the government received payments, averaging about $4,600.