AFGE Statement on Federal Employee Retirement Hearing
WASHINGTON, Jan. 25, 2012 – American Federation of Government Employees National President John Gage today issued the following statement in response to the congressional hearing on federal employees’ retirement security before the House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee on the federal workforce, U.S. Postal Service and labor policy:
“Congress created the Federal Employees Retirement System in the mid-1980s to mirror leading private sector practices. The vast majority of a federal employee’s retirement income comes from personal investments in the government’s 401(k) plan and mandatory payments into Social Security. Federal employees also receive a very modest pension that provides an average of $939 a month when they retire. As NARFE Director of Retirement Benefit Services David Snell so eloquently stated in his testimony before the subcommittee, ‘federal employees are not retiring rich.’ Read more
Legislative Attacks On Federal Retirement Compensation Is Based On Misguided Assumptions
STATEMENT BY DAVID B. SNELL
DIRECTOR OF RETIREMENT BENEFITS SERVICES
NATIONAL ACTIVE AND RETIRED FEDERAL EMPLOYEES ASSOCIATION
ON BEHALF OF THE MEMBER ORGANIZATIONS OF THE FEDERAL-POSTAL COALITION
note: Full testimony below
Unfortunately, recent legislative proposals have sought to unravel this basic bargain, unfairly singling out middle class federal employees for disproportionate sacrifice. Last month, the House passed legislation (H.R. 3630) that would use cuts to federal retirement compensation of middle class federal and postal workers to pay for a payroll tax holiday. It would offset over half of the cost of the holiday ($65 billion over ten years out of a $121 billion cost3) on the backs of less than 2 percent of the nation’s workforce.4 This would add financial strain on top of the prospect of job loss through the sequestration process mandated by the debt ceiling agreement and the more than $60 billion that the federal government has already saved by freezing federal employee pay for the past two years, which itself has permanently diminished long-term annuities for recent retirees.
Attacks Based on Misguided Assumptions
The legislative attacks on federal employee retirement compensation seem to derive from: (i) the misguided assumption that most private sector 401(k) retirement plans provide adequate retirement income security – they do not; (ii) the related assumption that federal retirement benefits are overly generous – they are not; and (iii) the questionable opinion that instead of pursuing policies that would improve private sector retirement income security, Congress should pursue policies that diminish federal retirement income security – it should not. Read more
Rep. Lynch: Hearing On Reducing Retirement Benefits is Really Attack On Federal Workers
Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Fla., on Wednesday introduced a bill that would increase how much federal employees pay toward their retirement and steeply reduce pensions for new employees.
HR 3813, the Securing Annuities for Federal Employees Act, would raise contributions for current Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) employees by 0.5 percentage points per year for three years, beginning in 2013. This would make FERS employees contribute 2.3 percent of each paycheck toward their pensions, and require an 8.5 percent contribution from CSRS employees.
The bill would eliminate the so-called FERS annuity supplement for new retirees beginning in 2013, except for employees facing mandatory retirement such as air traffic controllers. Today, FERS employees who retire before reaching age 62 receive a supplement equal to the Social Security benefit they will be eligible for once they reach age 62. Read more
Retired Postal Worker Fights To Get More than Half Of Pension
OPM backlog affecting recent postal retiree.
Mt. Vernon, OH –
A Mt. Vernon veteran who devoted three decades to the U.S. Postal Service as a mail carrier says he is now receiving only about half his pension check from the federal government.
Jon Minard served in Vietnam, losing an eye to a grenade, before returning home and working at the U.S.P.S. delivering mail for thirty years. He worked in Dublin before eventually moving to Mt. Vernon.
When Minard retired last August, he expected his pension check to be there. Instead, he says he is only receiving a little more than half of the $2500 he is owed.
Minard says it is a frustrating chapter to an agency he had always been able to rely on.
source: Veteran Fights Federal Government For Pension Check | NBC 4i.
Postal Employees Should Delay Retirement Until Passage of Postal Reform Bill
All APWU represented employees who are retirement eligible should consider delaying their retirement until the Postal Reform efforts have been concluded. Each of the legislative initiatives (Issa – Carper – Obama) includes the return of the $7 billion overpayment with authorization to use it for retirement incentives. Retroactivity is probably unachievable so to secure eligibility, employees should protect themselves. If the $7 billion is returned, postal management has an incentive to replace existing employees with new hires whose wages will be significantly less. Read more
COLA Announced: Federal Retirement Annuities Will Rise in 2012
Federal retirees will receive a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) to their civil service annuities beginning in January 2012. Retirees in the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) will receive a 3.6 percent increase to their annuities, while retirees in the Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS) will receive a 2.6 percent increase to their annuities.
To trigger a COLA for 2012, the average CPI-W for the months of July, August, and September of 2011 needed to rise above the 2008 average for those same months, the last measurement to trigger a COLA (for 2009). It did, by 3.6 percent. While CSRS retirees receive the full amount of the CPI-W increase as a COLA, current law reduces the FERS COLA by 1 percentage point for increases above 3 percent.
Because the CPI-W showed declining prices from 2008 to 2009, and while it showed prices increasing between 2009 and 2010, it did not show prices increasing back to 2008 levels, there has not been a COLA for the last two years. But finally, we have some good news for 2012!
Under current law, COLAs for federal retirement annuities, as well as for military retiree annuities and Social Security payments, are determined in reference to the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W), which is calculated by economists and statisticians with the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The CPI-W is the current index used for measuring increases in the prices of consumer goods throughout the economy. It includes prices on all consumer goods, including food and beverages, housing, clothing, transportation, medical care, recreation, education and communication, and more.
The new CPI-W figure for September 2011 was 223.688. The average CPI-W for the third quarter of 2011 was 223.233. This is the new reference figure for determining the 2013 COLA.
NARFE continues to support strong COLAs based on fair assessments of increases in consumer prices to protect the value of federal annuities from inflation.
source: NARFE
Tennessee Congressman to Super Committee: Stop Early Retirements
Filed under: early out, postal, postal news, press releases, retirement
The following is a press release from John J. Duncan, Jr. (R-TN 2nd district):
Rep. John J. Duncan, Jr. in a letter this week urged the Congressional “Super Committee” tasked with finding trillions of dollars in savings in the federal budget to put a stop to early federal retirements. Read more
USPS Wants to Offer Eligible Postal Workers Early Retirement?
Filed under: early out, postal news, retirement, usps, ver
As Don Cheney pointed out:
With all the other commotion going on, most eligible postal employees have overlooked this. I’m amazed anyone would retire right now without waiting to see what comes out of Congress by November 18th, the new deadline for USPS to make its $5.5 billion payment. Read more
Congressman Issa’s Bill Would First Layoff Retirement Eligible Postal Employees
Filed under: politics, postal, postal news, retirement, usps
Congressmen Darrell Issa and Dennis Ross’ amendment to its Postal Reform bill will require USPS to “separate” all retirement eligible employees prior to laying off any workers not yet eligible for a pension, and to “separate” the most senior of them first: Read more
NAPUS: Postal Subcommittee to Vote on HR 2309
Filed under: Congress, politics, post office closings, postal, postal news, retirement, usps
PR: Issa/Ross Postal Reform Bill Will Include Amendment To Boot Out Retirement-Eligible Postal Workers
From the National Association of Postmasters of the US:
Postal Subcommittee to Vote on HR 2309 On Wednesday, the House Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce, the Postal Service and Labor Policy will take up Rep. Darrell Issa’s (R-CA) postal legislation, HR 2309. NAPUS opposes the legislation for a number of reasons, including our strong belief that the bill would have a devastating effect on postal services to rural America. The bill seeks $1 billion in savings through closing post offices. The measure undermines a community’s lawful right to appeal an arbitrary or unsupported post office closure, eliminates the requirement that the Postal Service provide “a maximum degree of service” to rural areas, abolishes the prohibition against closing a post office solely for running a deficit, and creates a commission to close post offices. Read more