By Jory Heckman – August 8, 2017 The Office of Personnel Management saw an uptick in its retirement claims backlog in July after it brought the inventory down to its lowest point in the year just a month before. The inventory of unprocessed retirement claims stands at 17,091, about 4,000 claims away from the agency’s…
June 2017 Are you tired of trying to contact an Office of Personnel Management (OPM) representative for assistance with your benefits only to keep getting a busy signal? Or once you finally get through to customer service, you are placed on hold? The good news is you can avoid the wait! If you are receiving…
Postal Service Reform Act of 2017 TITLE I–POSTAL SERVICE BENEFITS REFORM This bill requires the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to establish a Postal Service Health Benefits Program within the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program to offer health benefits plans for U.S. Postal Service (USPS) employees, annuitant retirees, and their families at rates that reflect…
Background The U.S. Postal Service provides pension and health insurance benefits to its retirees. Postal Service employees participate in the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) or Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) pension programs. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) administers these programs, including projecting future CSRS and FERS assets and liabilities for the federal government…
The Postal Service is reminding employees that the deadline to make Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) catch-up contributions effective for the first pay period of 2017 is Jan. 4 at 4 p.m. EST. There is no open season for TSP. Employees can make or change TSP elections at any time during the year. In 2017, employees…
Eric Katz – December 23, 2016 The U.S. Postal Service could finally have its payments into the federal employee pension account calculated using assumptions from its workforce specifically, rather than the federal workforce as a whole, which has long been a sticking point at the mailing agency. USPS leadership has for years argued its payments…
For CSRS Retirees: The 2017 CSRS retiree COLA is based on the third quarter (July, August, September) average CPI-W index (1982-84=100) in 2016 over the 2014 third quarter average. Because there was no payout on the 2015 3rd quarter average, the base remained the 3rd quarter average for 2014. The 2017 CSRS COLA effective December…
The usual suspects in Congress are at it again, with a “reform” bill that contains a pre funding section, in addition to a number of poison pills that we are expected to swallow. Speaks for itself and should be stopped dead in it’s tracks. Draft Postal Service Reform Act of 2016 Postal Service Health Benefits…
