Payments Concentrated by Agency, Occupation

As in the past, payments are heavily concentrated by agency and occupation. By occupation, the greatest percentages went to attorneys, criminal investigators, administrators, intelligence and contract specialist personnel. By agency, Justice, Defense, State, SEC, GAO and HHS together accounted for four-fifths of the payments; a total of 36 agencies made payments. Agencies making the greatest use of payments report that they consider them an effective recruitment and retention tool. OPM said that because the payments are to be used to target certain personnel needs, agencies “do not necessarily need to provide a large number of student loan repayments to use the incentive effectively.” It said that the administration wants agencies to “ensure that the cost of using these benefits is commensurate with the benefits gained.” OPM previously had imposed greater scrutiny on the use of another authority with a similar purpose, recruitment, relocation and retention incentive payments.