Student Loan Repayment Programs

While only 10% of employers offer a student loan repayment program, 5% are thinking of adding one this year, and another 20% say they might make the leap next year or in 2021, Willis Towers Watson learned in a recent survey.

Eight percent currently offer student loan consolidation, 5% may add that this year, and 21%, sometime in the next two years. Far less common are employer contributions toward student loan debt, offered by a mere 3% of employers. Four percent may make these contributions this year, and 24% may start by 2021.

While tuition reimbursement programs, which are federally regulated, are far more common—offered by 80% of employers—Willis Towers Watson is starting to see “a significant increase in the number of employers considering a student loan repayment program, when they think about the overall wellness of their worker population,” says Lydia Jilek, senior director of voluntary benefits at the consultancy.

And while student loan debt, estimated to now top $1.5 trillion in the U.S., is “pervasive within the U.S. population among all generations,” Jilek says, a company should first assess whether offering such a program would be right for its employee base before implementing one.

That said, Jilek reveals that Millennials are the most vocal about asking for these programs, but workers in their 30s and 40s carry the highest student loan debt balances. Further, many people in their 60s have taken out student loans on behalf of their children and/or grandchildren, and have the highest delinquency rate for repayment, she says.

According to Jilek, because some employers are hesitant to take on the added expense of the repayment programs, some opt to offer only one, to a pilot group of their worker population such as graduates of certain years. Others start with a “debt consolidation dashboard that they then use as a proxy, to see the take-up rate,” she says. “That might indicate, for example, that the employer would be faced with 20% of its worker population taking up a repayment program.”

Jilek reports hearing that the IRS may expand the Abbott ruling, which permitted that company to give 401(k) matches for workers paying down their student loan debt.

She says the agency may make a decision by the end of the year. “My perception is that we are on a faster track because of the growing interest in offering these programs to employees across the board,” she says. However, it is “unclear whether the IRS will grant additional flexibility.” —Lee Barney

Art by Núria Tamarit