FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
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Learn more about Peanut Butter Student Loan Assistance
Why is the company called Peanut Butter?
What is Student Loan Assistance?
Student Loan Assistance is the #1 benefit preferred by college-educated talent. It helps employers achieve their talent acquisition and retention goals by:
- providing employees with online resources to manage their student debt, and
- providing employers with a convenient way to make monthly contributions to the employees’ student loans.
Why are employers choosing to offer Student Loan Assistance?
Employers are choosing to offer Student Loan Assistance in order to attract, retain, and engage a diverse set of the most ambitious and well-trained workers in the world. Learn more here.
What other employers offer student loan assistance?
The Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) reported that 8% of US employers offer Student Loan Repayment in 2019, up 100% year over year. EBRI recently reported that nearly 1/3 of US employers offer some form of Student Loan Assistance, like Student Loan Resources, or have plans to do so. See the stats here.
Peanut Butter is proud to partner employers across the United States, including many in these industries.
How does Peanut Butter administer a Student Loan Assistance program?
How much does Peanut Butter cost?
Employers can choose to offer company-wide access to Student Loan Resources right away for a flat annual fee. We then help you determine the prevalance of student debt in your organization and eligibility criteria for a Student Loan Repayment plan.Â
Once the organization is ready to roll out Student Loan Repayment with employer-sponsored contributions, there is just a small per participant per month fee for those who choose to receive contributions.
To learn more, check out our Pricing page.
What are the employer’s responsibilities?
The main responsibility is to assign a Payroll Administrator or HR Generalist to spend 20 minutes at the beginning of each month administering their Student Loan Assistance program by inviting new hires, suspending terminated employees, and aligning payroll.
We support all of the tactical aspects of set up and roll out, and provide internal and external communication templates to your organization to help you maximize the return of investment.Â
What should employers keep in mind when designing their plans?
According to the Society for Human Resource Management, these are the key things to consider with your program:
- Start Slow and Grow — start your program with smaller repayment amounts, and then increase the benefit as it suits the needs of your organization
- Keep it Simple — make eligibility simple without special qualifications or requirements
- Have Shared Accountability — make employees accountable for their monthly contributions while you help them get out of debt faster with employer contributions.
Is there anything specific to know when selecting a program?
Let us help you estimate the amount of student debt held by employees within your industry and/or organization. From there, we can advise on the type of plan, eligiblity criteria and contribution amount that will have the most impact for your employees and provide the greatest return for your organization.
How much do employers typically contribute, or what are common contribution amounts?
The most common company contribution is $50 per participant per month. Many employers will initiate their plans here, with the goal of increasing to $100 per month in the second plan year.
When an employer contributes $100 per month, the average employee will get out of debt in 7 years instead of 10 and save more than $11,000 in principal and interest.
Recently, several employers have seen success initiating their programs at $30 per participant per month, marketed as ‘a dollar a day toward your student loans’.
Is there an end to monthly contributions (by time, date, amount)?
Should I offer gradually increasing payments (e.g., $50/mo during year 1, $100/mo year 2)?
You can offer and design your repayment plan to have tiers at any time. However, the most successful plans start simple at a flat dollar amount.Â
A modest contribution can make a noticeable difference in achieving hiring and retention goals. It also minimizes the company’s financial risk while you assess how many employees will elect to participate in the benefit.Â
How are employer contributions taxed?
Employer-sponsored student loan repayment contributions are tax deductible.Â
To learn more, read the blog article “How exactly are taxes treated for student loan repayment?”
Can companies offer employees the option to receive either 401(k) contributions or Student Loan Assistance?
No, because ERISA laws will not currently allow employers to make 401(k) participation or contributions contingent on action or inaction.
Learn more by reading our blog article “Three Things to Consider If Attempting to Tie Student Loan Repayment and a Company 401(K)“.Â
How do companies typically determine eligibility?
Most employers choose to offer Student Loan Assistance to all benefit-eligible employees. This is based upon precedents from other benefit programs.
However, employers do have the option to offer Student Loan Assistance to a subset of employees and not to other employees as the benefit is not subject to ERISA.
Will employees without student loans think this is unfair?
What eligibility criteria can be used?
Is there any eligibility criteria not recommended?
If an intern worked at our company and then was rehired at a later date, are they eligible?
Are employee spouses eligible to participate?
No, your employee must be listed as the primary borrower on the student loan. Read our blog article “This Is Why Your Employee Should Always Be the Borrower When You Offer Student Loan Repayment” to understand more.
Who is likely to participate?
How many of my employees have student loans?
This is truly dependent on your company demographics and the field of work you are in.Â
We can help you determine student loan prevalence within your company. Contact us to learn more.
Should employees sign a commitment agreement (e.g., I’ll stay for so long or pay it back)?
What do employees agree to do as participants in the program?
Do Parent Plus loans qualify?
What if I’m a co-signer?
The loan must list the employee as the primary borrower. Co-signers are not eligible. Read our blog article “This Is Why Your Employee Should Always Be the Borrower When You Offer Student Loan Repayment” to learn more.
Do non-U.S. student loans qualify?
Can an employee enroll with private loans, auto loans or credit card loans?
Should we conduct enrollment at the same time as our health plan enrollment?
How do I know the eligible employee is making their monthly payment?
How are my company's funds sent to loan servicers?
Are payments applied to my employee's principal balance?
Employer-sponsored contributions are applied according to the terms of the employee’s loan agreement with the lender and/or loan servicer. We also provide guidance to employees in their account on ways to communicate with their loan servicer and request excess payments be applied to principal when possible.