April 26, 2023 By law, the Postal Service’s retiree assets are invested exclusively in U.S. Treasury securities, which pose little risk and generate low investment returns. If the Postal Service wanted to invest in other assets, congressional action would be required. An OIG analysis found the Postal Service could have had $1.2 trillion in retirement…
March 9, 2023 Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Susan Collins (R-ME) reintroduced the bipartisan Social Security Fairness Act (S. 597) in the Senate on March 1. The bill, which is identical to legislation introduced in the House (H.R. 82) in January by Reps. Garret Graves (R-LA) and Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), would repeal the Government Pension…
FERS COLA After the second quarter of 2021, the third quarter for the 2022 COLA adjustment period, the quarterly average has increased by 4.1%. The 2022 FERS retiree COLA is based on the third quarter (July, August, September) average CPI-W index (1982-84=100) in 2021 over the 2020 third quarter average. However, if the CPI-W quarterly…
HOW THE COLA IS CALCULATED The 2021 FERS retiree COLA is based on the third quarter (July, August, September) average CPI-W index (1982-84=100) in 2020 over the 2019 third quarter average. However, if the CPI-W quarterly average increases 3% or more, they subtract 1%. For example, a 5% increase in the quarterly CPI-W average results…
Do you know about survivor benefits and how they work? You can make one of the following survivor benefit elections to occur in the event of your death: No survivor benefits Full or partial annuity for spouse Full or partial annuity for former spouse Combination of full or partial annuity for a spouse and former…
The Postal Service wants employees to have up-to-date beneficiary forms for life insurance and other benefits. While completing a beneficiary form is not mandatory, doing so allows an employee to choose who will receive payment. If an employee does not name a beneficiary, payment will be made to the next of kin according to a…
Objective The Postal Service participates in three retirement plans: the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS), the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), and the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits (RHB). The first two are pension plans and the third is set up to fund the Postal Service’s share of RHB premiums. The U.S. Office of Personnel…
Objective The Postal Service participates in three retirement plans: The Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS), the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), and the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits (RHB). The first two are pension plans, and the third is set up to fund RHB premiums. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) administers these programs, including…
