Search
How the City of Alexandria, VA unlocked average monthly savings of $317 and $114,000 in projected forgiveness per borrower by tackling student loan debt
The City of Alexandria has long prioritized the holistic health and wellbeing of its employees. And while promoting physical and mental wellbeing through its healthcare programs was straightforward, financial wellbeing proved challenging with resource constraints, limited bandwidth and unclear ROI.
Alexandria knew that with a highly-educated population, employees and their families faced large student loan debt balances with little guidance on navigating this core blocker to financial wellbeing. In fact, only 2% of PSLF eligible Virginians have achieved forgiveness and 16% have submitted the required eligibility forms. Wellbeing Program Manager Dr. Grace Ingram, who graduated with a Doctorate in Health Science, spoke about her own experience when connecting with employees about Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) at Alexandria:
I was shocked by how many employees were not even aware of PSLF. For those individuals that I did talk to who were knowledgeable, I received the same look every time and employees saying, “I tried that. It didn’t work.” So we needed to work through that and show why the PSLF waiver was so important.
Alexandria partnered with Summer to provide employees with a comprehensive digital student loan solution including automated PSLF enrollment and dedicated customer support. Summer, the first platform to allow HR teams to sign employer certification forms online, helped Dr. Ingram and her team turn a once difficult process into a seamless one with proven ROI.
Summer empowered eligible employees to self-manage an average debt of $85,436 and optimize their financial wellbeing goals at large, with minimal input needed from the HR function and benefit budget. Since partnering, over 33% of employees with student debt have engaged with the Summer solution with a 100% employee satisfaction rate and $4,980,305 in total projected forgiveness.
Our partners experienced unprecedented uncertainty and ultimately growth during 2020, leading to a deeper commitment to employee retention and engagement. At Summer, our job is to uncover creative ways to jumpstart our partners' financial wellbeing initiatives, and managing student loan debt is a great place to start. Summer's holistic student loan solution allows us to meet borrowers where they are and provide help no matter their situation.
– Bridget Haile, Chief Customer Officer
Schedule an exploratory call or demo with a product specialist to learn more about how to jumpstart your financial wellbeing initiatives with a digital student loan solution.
Summer, PBC
33 Irving Place
New York, NY 10003
