FREDDIE MAC OFFERS BACK-UP ELDER CARE FOR EMPLOYEES

New Innovative Benefit to Help Employees Juggle Career, Family Needs

McLean, VA – Recognizing the demands placed upon individuals with caregiving roles, Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE), one of the nation's largest investors in residential mortgages, is offering its approximately 5,300 employees a new back-up in-home elder care benefit. Starting this month, Freddie Mac employees will have access to a national network of home health care professionals and elder care specialists for back-up care to assist with the needs of elderly family members when their primary caregiver is not available. The company is also expanding the current back-up child care network available to employees.

"Many people today are faced with caregiving responsibilities and must therefore juggle the demands of a career and the needs of their families. The back-up elder care benefit will help employees better meet those demands," said Julie Peterson, vice president, Compensation & Benefits, Freddie Mac.

As the nation's demographics shift, families are increasingly taking on caregiving roles for both their children and elders. In fact, over 44 million Americans, or an estimated 21 percent of the U.S. population, provide care for an adult family member or friend, and more than half of all caregivers are employed, according to the National Alliance for Caregiving. Recognizing this, Freddie Mac's new benefit will help employees balance their work and personal responsibilities.

The new elder care program, offered through Bright Horizons, a national provider of work-site child care and now elder care services, will assist employees whose elder relatives need non-medical care such as meal preparation, bathing, grooming and companion services. Those eligible include employees' and their spouses' or partner's direct relatives, including parents, grandparents and other adult dependents. Employees pay a minimal fee of $15 per day for in-home elder care services for up to 20 days per year and must reserve daily in-home care for a minimum of four hours. Medical care professionals are also available at an additional fee based on the type of medical service needed.

The company offers employees other related caregiving services such as a Long-Term Care Insurance (LTC) plan which is designed to help employees and/or their loved ones defray the cost of extended care, including nursing home care, alternate care, home health care, adult day care and informal care. Freddie Mac is also working with employees to address elder care issues in other ways. The company has an employee network group – The Sandwich Generation – to assist employees in addressing and dealing with a host of elder care needs. Employees can attend educational seminars and support group meetings to gain a deeper understanding of, and explore practical solutions to, long-term health and elder care issues.

To further assist employees with back-up child care needs, Freddie Mac offers near-site, back-up care through Bright Horizons. The company is also now offering employees in-home back-up child care as well as in-home back-up care for mildly ill children.

As one of the Washington, DC region's most admired employers, Freddie Mac's dedication to providing a dynamic, employee-friendly workplace manifests itself through an ever increasing range of innovative programs and benefits offered to employees, including: an on-site, free Wellness Center, fitness center, business casual dress, lactation rooms and consultation, dependent/health care accounts, award-winning adoption benefits, a concierge service, flex-time, purchasable vacation days, exemplary 401(k) program, and work-life assistance to name a few.

Freddie Mac is a stockholder-owned company established by Congress in 1970 to support homeownership and rental housing. Freddie Mac fulfills its mission by purchasing residential mortgages and mortgage-related securities, which it finances primarily by issuing mortgage-related securities and debt instruments in the capital markets. Over the years, Freddie Mac has made home possible for one in six homebuyers and more than four million renters in America.

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