Student Loan Repayment Assistance Programs

Paying your student loan is a tiring process. And many people decide to take student loans without knowing all the challenges, terms, and conditions. For every article regarding a student loan subject, there will always be a pool of questions about their loan repayment options and how they can approach to complete their debts faster. Many companies have started providing student loan repayment assistance introducing student loan repayment assistance programs. Many of these assistance programs are provided by the Federal Government. There are two types of repayment assistance programs as described below:

Federal Loan Repayment Assistance Programs
Private Loan Repayment Assistance Programs

Keep reading the article to know the benefits of these programs and how you can take advantage of such opportunities.

Table of contents

Private Student Loan LRAP
Government Student Loan LRAP

Private student loan repayment assistance programs

These are the Student Loan Repayment Assistance Programs that are provided by the employers to their employees, as a form of assistance in their repayment journey. They offer it as one of the benefits. According to a recent survey, over 50 percent of employees in a company prefer student loan assistance programs over additional vacation.

Payments directly go to the Student Loan Servicers (most of the major servicers do accept this) thereby paying their student loans.

The amount that the companies are providing now has been ranging from $100 a month to nearly $10,000.Many employers do not have a limit on the number of student loan assistance programs. They usually continue until the student loan is completely paid off. Also continues until the employee is working actively at the company. Note that this is often restricted to full-time employees only.

These Loan Repayment assistance programs are more common in the medical sector(where there is a lot of demand for talent), although they are slowly finding their way to the corporate world as well.

These are currently considered taxable income by the IRS. Therefore you will always end up paying tax amounts for this assistance. However, Congress is considering removing that facility. Some employers are waiting to introduce this policy once Congress clears this bill that will remove the tax on LRAP.

Some of the federal loan servicers that facilitate LRAP are

Lower Student Loan Payments
Lower Student Loan Payments
Make Extra Student Loan Payments
BenefitEd (Nelnet)
EdAssist (Bright Horizons Family Solutions)
Fidelity
Goodly
Gradifi (First Republic Bank)
Gradvisor
Gusto
ioniuition
LRAP Association
SoFi at Work
Student Loan Genius
Tuition.io

Some of the employers that are providing student loan repayment assistance are:

Natixis Global Asset Management(up to $10,000)
Nvidia(up to $6,000)
Gradifi(up to $3,000)
LendEDU(up to $2,400)
Aetna(up to $2,000)
Martin Health Systems(up to $2,000) and many more...

Searching for student loans? Find the best student loans to manage your payments effectively.

Government student loan repayment assistance programs

The government introduced the student loan repayment assistance a long time back and in different departments. The departments and their loan repayment assistance programs are as follows:

1 - Federal government

This facility is used by around 10,000 federal employees, who receive an average of $7,000 annually. The Federal Government introduced a program that pays up to $10,000 a year with a cap of up to $60,000 for Federal Student Loans for its highly qualified members. This was introduced much before, probably in the early ‘90s, through a program called Office Personnel Management(OPM). This requires you to commit at least 3 years to work for the government, which when failed, requires you to pay back in full amount.

LRAPs is offered by the government to the graduate/employees who promise to pursue their career to require time as a public servant. This can help you with your student loan debt. You can enquire if your college, the state provides LRAPs assistance programs.

2 - Military

Enlisted and active-duty members of the US Military might be eligible for Student Loan repayment assistance of up to $65,000(in Federal Loans). The Air Force programs usually provide less than that of Army and Navy programs. It should be specified before itself, on the enlistment contract. The candidates must satisfy the required criteria to qualify for this program.

If you provide your services in the field of military /Navy/Air force serving the country, you are eligible for loan repayment assistance programs.
Under the program National Guard LRAP, the government offers an award of awards, which is a recent program that has been introduced. Army’s College Loan Repayment Program promises to some loan debt once in 3 years. There are multiple military student loan forgiveness that you can apply if you qualify for the same.

3 - Judicial department

The US Department of Justice provides LRPA for state attorneys and public defenders, which allows the participants to receive up to $10,000 annually, capped at $60,0000. A 3-year commitment is required and is tax-free as well. If you are in public law then you should probably check out The American Bar Association guide containing different loan repayment assists.

We have the below repayment programs for the employees working in the field of justice.

Department of Justice Attorney Student Loan Repayment Program
John R. Justice Student Loan Repayment Program
The Herbert S. Garten Loan Repayment Assistance Program
Loan repayment assistance programs (LRAPs)

It is a smart option to have a look at the income-driven repayment program though this plan is very generic and multiple employees of different filed can take advantage of it.

4 - State government

A majority number of states offer more than 100 Student loan Repayment Assitance Programs. Most of these programs are in the medical field. You can research the many medical student loan repayment options available such as the NHSC loan repayment program, etc.

Coming to financial assists, many state governments also provide student loan forgiveness programs that you might want to take a look at. This can come off as a great help, especially if you are a person in the teaching profession or earn a low income.

Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is provided for a public servant who provided service for a minimum of 3 years

5 - Medical field

There is multiple forgiveness program provided to workers in the medical field. National Health Service Corps (NHSC) loan repayment assistance provides an award of $50,000 to licensed practitioners. Basic qualification criteria are to be a doctor, dentist, or a mental or behavioral clinician working for 2 years when instructed by the government.

LRAPs award loan assistance is just not provided to doctors, nurses, teachers, and lawyers, it is slowly been introduced to other career fields. Alfond Leaders Program awards are given to a state in Maine to the employees working in the corporate world.

So this is the overview of the Student loan repayment assistance programs that are available for you. It is important to know all your available options since this can help you decide your plans and decision making. If you are in your student loan repayment crisis and need help, you can look at the different student loan repayment plans. Or you could also consider student loan consolidation or student loan refinancing to help you tackle your debts.

Other blogs you may be interested in

Student loan repayment plans

National Health Service Corps(NHSC) Loan Repayment Program

Federal and Private Student Loan Repayment Options