How To Make The Most Of Your Employer's Student Loan Assistance Payments

About one in five companies already offers student loan repayment assistance. Photo credit: Shutterstock

As job markets heat up and employers compete for talent, a growing number of companies are offering student loan repayment assistance to attract and retain millennials.

These programs, which typically work much the same way as a 401(k) match, can be very appealing to recent graduates -- particularly those who took on more debt to attend selective schools.

An American Student Assistance poll of workers age 22 through 33 that came out in February found that:

• 86 percent of millennials would commit to an employer for 5 years if the company helped pay back their student loans.
• 93 percent of young workers would take advantage of a sign-on bonus targeted at paying back student loans.
• 92 percent would take advantage of a match for student loan repayments similar to a 401k match.

The ASA poll found that paying off student loans was a priority for 59 percent of young workers. That’s more than the 41 percent who said saving for retirement was a priority.

If you ask young workers what the two or three most important employee benefits are to them, student loan repayment comes in right behind health insurance and 401(k) matching. It's more important to millennials than perks like health flexible savings accounts, financial planning assistance, and commuter benefits.

While you often see headlines when big firms like Fidelity, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Aetna, and Staples roll out these programs, just about any company can provide this perk to their employees -- by hiring fintech companies like FutureFuel, Gradfin, Peanut Butter, and Tuition.io to administer them.

(Disclosure: My company, Credible.com, works with each of those fintech companies to help employees get even more out of this benefit by refinancing their student loans at lower interest rates).

A survey of human resources managers at 100 companies by outplacement and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas found that 22 percent of companies are already offering student loan repayment assistance, and that 72 percent were planning to implement it.

If Congress gets behind the Trump administration's proposals to scale back student loan forgiveness for graduate students and public service workers, these programs will become even more important to employees.

Consumer watchdog exposes pitfalls

">

About one in five companies already offers student loan repayment assistance. Photo credit: Shutterstock

As job markets heat up and employers compete for talent, a growing number of companies are offering student loan repayment assistance to attract and retain millennials.

These programs, which typically work much the same way as a 401(k) match, can be very appealing to recent graduates -- particularly those who took on more debt to attend selective schools.

An American Student Assistance poll of workers age 22 through 33 that came out in February found that:

• 86 percent of millennials would commit to an employer for 5 years if the company helped pay back their student loans.
• 93 percent of young workers would take advantage of a sign-on bonus targeted at paying back student loans.
• 92 percent would take advantage of a match for student loan repayments similar to a 401k match.

The ASA poll found that paying off student loans was a priority for 59 percent of young workers. That’s more than the 41 percent who said saving for retirement was a priority.

If you ask young workers what the two or three most important employee benefits are to them, student loan repayment comes in right behind health insurance and 401(k) matching. It's more important to millennials than perks like health flexible savings accounts, financial planning assistance, and commuter benefits.

While you often see headlines when big firms like Fidelity, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Aetna, and Staples roll out these programs, just about any company can provide this perk to their employees -- by hiring fintech companies like FutureFuel, Gradfin, Peanut Butter, and Tuition.io to administer them.

(Disclosure: My company, Credible.com, works with each of those fintech companies to help employees get even more out of this benefit by refinancing their student loans at lower interest rates).

A survey of human resources managers at 100 companies by outplacement and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas found that 22 percent of companies are already offering student loan repayment assistance, and that 72 percent were planning to implement it.

If Congress gets behind the Trump administration's proposals to scale back student loan forgiveness for graduate students and public service workers, these programs will become even more important to employees.

Consumer watchdog exposes pitfalls

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/stephendash/2017/10/13/how-to-make-the-most-of-your-employers-student-loan-assistance-payments/