Monthly Archives

May 2019

USDA to Seek Reduction in Force for 1,100 Employees

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The Trump administration plans to eliminate jobs for nearly 1,100 Forest Service employees who manage the agency’s 24 Job Corps Civilian Conservation Centers, which train young people for jobs in conservation and wildland firefighting. The centers will be transferred from the Forest Service to the Labor Department, which plans to close nine of them and turn 15 over to contractors or other non-federal entities.

Forest Service officials, in a conference call with employees Friday morning, said they were notified of the plan only days ago. “This was a high-level policy decision,” Forest Service Chief Victoria Christiansen told employees on the call. Christiansen was clearly distressed to share what she called “very difficult news” and pledged to do all she could to support those affected.

As the call was underway, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, whose department includes the Forest Service, formally notified Labor Secretary Alexander of USDA’s intention to transfer the centers to Labor, which runs other federal Job Corps centers. The move is part of Perdue’s efforts to reorganize and streamline operations at the department.

The Forest Service has yet to work out many details for the move. It will begin by requesting reduction in force authority from the Office of Personnel Management as early as next week so the agency can offer affected workers job placement assistance, severance pay and early retirement options. But there are many other issues to work out as well, as was clear by the questions employees raised. Those include:

  • What’s going to happen to students currently enrolled in centers slated to close?
  • How will the cuts affect wildfire response?
  • How will management of centers on Forest Service land be shifted to the private sector?
  • What will happen to employees currently in the process of relocating between facilities, some of whom have sold homes and shipped household goods?
  • How will existing construction contracts be handled where work is ongoing at some facilities?
  • Will employees be able to apply for jobs with contractors expected to take over the facilities?

“We only found out about this four days ago,” Christiansen said. “All of the processes for this transition are not where we want them to be.”

Acting deputy chief for business operations Robert Velasco said he anticipated the process for transferring and closing the centers would take three to six months.

The centers slated to close are in Montana, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Virginia, Washington, North Carolina, Oregon and two in Kentucky.

Forest Service officials said they expected to brief members of Congress on the plans next week. “My guess is the requests for briefings will be accelerated,” Christiansen said.

If you need any assistance, or would like to have a Free Retirement Review, please Contact Us or call (877) 733-3877 x 1 for assistance

 

 

“401k” Federal Savings Plan Modernization Act Goes Into Effect September 15 2019

By | Benefits, Federal Pay, TSP | No Comments

We have had a lot of Federal Employees asking about the “401k” Federal Savings Plan Modernization Act of 2017 and when it would be come available for the employees.  For the longest time, we only knew that the “401k” Federal Savings Plan would be allowed to have up to two years to be ready, or so wanting to know when the changes implemented by the “401k” Federal Savings Plan Modernization Act would take effect. Until today, we only knew a general time frame: September 2019; however, the “401k” Federal Savings Plan has now provided a specific date as to when you can expect the changes to go into effect.

According to a recent bulletin posted by the “401k” Federal Savings Plan , the changes under the new law will go into effect on September 15, 2019.

Change to Eliminate Financial Hardship In-Service Withdrawal Six-Month Suspension Rule

The bulletin contains information for federal agency payroll and HR staff about changes to the rules governing hardship withdrawals from the “401k” Federal Savings Plan while in service.

The bulletin notes that as of September 15, any “401k” Federal Savings Plan participant who received a financial hardship in-service withdrawal and is suspended from contributing to the “401k” Federal Savings Plan will be able to re-start “401k” Federal Savings Plan contributions even though the participant may not have completed the six-month suspension period.

Key Points to Note:

  • Any participant who received a financial hardship in-service withdrawal and is suspended from contributing to the “401k” Federal Savings Plan will be able to re-start “401k” Federal Savings Plan contributions effective September 15, 2019, even though the participant may not have completed the six-month suspension period.
  • Participants whose “401k” Federal Savings Plan contributions were suspended as a result of a financial hardship in-service withdrawal will receive a “401k” Federal Savings Plan notice alerting them that they can resume contributions as of September 15, 2019. Restarting “401k” Federal Savings Plan contributions is the participant’s responsibility.
  • Participants and agencies will still need to follow current procedures to resume contributions by having the participant access their employer pay system, or by completing Form “401k” Federal Savings Plan -1, Election Form.
  • Report 5501 (Financial Hardship In-Service Withdrawal Report) will be generated through September 13, 2019.
  • As of September 15, 2019, Report 5501 (Financial Hardship In-service Withdrawal Report) will be obsolete as any financial hardship in-service withdrawals taken on or after that day will not require a six-month suspension of contributions.

The “401k” Federal Savings Plan will publish a separate bulletin in the third quarter of 2019 with more details providing guidance for agency HR and payroll offices to implement these changes in conjunction with changes from the “401k” Federal Savings Plan Modernization Act of 2017.

For more information or immediate assistance, please reach out to us so we can help you plan for your retirement. Visit our Contact Us Page or call us Toll Free (877) 733-3877 x 1

OPM Chief to Propose Legislation for Merger With GSA By Week’s End

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Nearly a year after the Trump administration announced its proposal to send the bulk of the Office of Personnel Management’s functions to the General Services Administration, acting OPM Director Margaret Weichert said Tuesday that she will be submitting proposed legislation to Congress authorizing the merger “hopefully by Friday.”

Speaking with reporters, Weichert said that the legislation would transfer the legal authorities currently provided to OPM to an as-yet unnamed office within GSA, akin to its existing Federal Acquisition and Public Buildings services. Additionally, the bill would create a small policy-focused personnel office within the Executive Office of the President, modeled after the Office of Federal Procurement Policy.

“GSA has that structure, that framework, and is also a known expert in IT contracting and procurement, and that is a critical element in supporting the mission of OPM going forward,” she said. “We’re not structured to invest in world class operational excellence. The backlogs in terms of hiring, background checks and retirement processing, those are all endemic to our structure, and throwing money at the problem doesn’t fundamentally fix how we get after shared services support structures.”

A document outlining Weichert’s justification for the merger provided to Government Executive stated that the government’s HR agency lacks sufficient resources or technological capabilities to handle its duties alone. The administration cited the 2015 OPM data breach as an example of structural vulnerabilities within the agency.

“Despite the criticality of its mission, OPM is not currently structured or resourced sufficiently to maintain its mission in a sustainable, secure, and financially stable or sustainable way moving forward,” the document said. “In other words, the status quo is not viable. The disastrous large scale data breach experienced by OPM in 2015 is an illustration of what is at stake.”

The administration did not elaborate about the source of these woes, but said conditions will be worsened by Congress’ decision in the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act to send the agency’s background investigations functions to the Defense Department. President Trump finalized the transfer of the National Background Investigations Bureau through an executive order last month.

The background investigations bureau “accounts for more than 80% of OPM’s revolving fund resources,” the document said. “This decision [to transfer it to Defense] will dramatically undercut OPM’s ability to operate and maintain the systems that support the federal civilian workforce, greatly increasing the risk of another failure on a scale as large as or larger than the data breach.”

Although background investigations currently account for a significant amount of OPM’s workload, it is unclear that the move of those operations to the Pentagon will affect the rest of the agency’s duties. For nearly two decades, OPM farmed out the bulk of its security clearance work to contractor U.S. Investigative Services, until a data breach at that company led to the agency terminating the contract in 2014. And OPM did not officially create the National Background Investigations Bureau until 2016.

Weichert said she “can’t speak to that circumstance,” but said that the departure of NBIB revenues will create a $70 million budget shortfall for OPM, and a greater “tech debt” that would impede IT modernization.

In a statement Tuesday, American Federation of Government Employees National President J. David Cox accused the Trump administration of engineering some of the problems that it now cites as justification for dismantling OPM.

“By divesting OPM of its responsibility to conduct background investigations on federal employees and contractors, the Trump administration has created the crisis it is now using to justify abolishing OPM,” Cox said. “[This] administration is clearly following a ‘ready, shoot, aim’ strategy built on misleading everyone about its motivations. Congress must prevent this reckless move in order to protect OPM from this irresponsible plan.”

In its document, the administration argued that aligning OPM and GSA would develop “synergies around people, facilities and contracts,” producing efficiencies that could result in savings of between $11 million and $37 million annually, although it provided no details about how those figures were calculated.

The document argued that GSA could help guide OPM in its effort to modernize its aging IT infrastructure, which the administration said in some cases relies on systems dating back to the early 1980s.

“GSA’s position as a trusted leader and valued partner in helping improve agencies’ use of information technology is bolstered by its B+ grade on the latest [Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act] scorecard, the highest in the federal government,” the administration wrote. “Additionally, GSA has spent the past decade focused on qualitatively and quantitatively improving its own shared CXO functions, so it is well positioned to support OPM.”

FERS Supplement Questions and Answers

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The Federal Employees Retirement System annuity supplement is important for those covered under FERS who plan to retire before turning 62. The supplement bridges the time between the onset of retirement and the age you qualify for Social Security retirement—which is generally 62. This benefit provides a source of income that mimics the age 62 Social Security benefit, but is computed using only civilian federal service creditable to the FERS retirement benefit.

About half of all FERS employees are entitled to this benefit when they retire. The supplement ends when a recipient turns 62. After reaching the minimum retirement age until the supplement ends at 62, an earnings test is applied by the Office of Personnel Management that can cause a reduction or elimination of the supplement.

Since the FERS supplement can get complicated, let’s look at some key questions and answers about it.

Who is eligible to receive the supplement?

To receive the supplement, you must be eligible for an immediate, unreduced FERS retirement benefit. Some employees are immediately eligible for the FERS supplement when they retire. This includes those who retire with entitlement to an immediate annuity, such as employees who have reached their minimum retirement age with at least 30 years of creditable service or those at age 60 with at least 20 years.

The FERS supplement is especially significant to those who must retire early under special provisions that apply to certain groups of employees, including law enforcement officers, firefighters, air traffic controllers, National Guard technicians, Customs and Border Protection officers, nuclear materials couriers and special agents of the Diplomatic Security Service. It is generally payable at retirement for these special coverage employees when they retire as early as age 50 with 20 years of covered service. It’s sometimes available even earlier for employees eligible to retire when they complete 25 years of covered service. The mandatory retirement age for most of these employees is 57 (56 for air traffic controllers).

For employees who retire under discontinued service (involuntary) retirement provisions or under early retirement provisions (that is, a major reduction in force, reorganization, or transfer of function), the supplement is payable when they reach their MRA if they retire at a younger age.

Who is not eligible?

If you’re already 62 when you retire, you will be eligible for Social Security retirement rather than the FERS supplement. Employees who resign without being old enough or having enough service to qualify for an immediate retirement are not eligible for the supplement even though they may receive a deferred retirement at a later date.

Employees retiring at their MRA with at least 10 years but less than 30 years of service (known as “MRA+10” retirement) and those retiring at age 60 or 61 with more than 10 but less than 20 years, are not eligible for the supplement even though they may choose to postpone their retirement application. Disability retirees are also not eligible.

Who pays it?

There is no special application to receive the FERS supplement. If you are entitled to receive this benefit, it is included with the FERS basic retirement benefit, which is administered by OPM.

What is the earnings test and how is it applied?

Continued receipt of the annuity supplement is subject to an earnings test every year and can be affected by wages earned by the retiree. OPM conducts annual surveys of more than 77,000 supplement recipients to assess their earnings. These surveys are sent in April and must be returned by the beginning of June.

Let’s suppose Lori, a federal law enforcement officer, plans to retire at 52 on Dec. 31, 2019, with 20 years of service. Her birthdate is Nov. 15, 1967 and her minimum retirement age is 56 years and six months. She won’t be subject to the annual earnings test until she has reached that age.

Now, let’s fast-forward and see what happens when Lori turns 56 and six months. Assume she has been receiving a FERS supplement of $1,000 per month, or $12,000 annually.

She will reach her minimum retirement age on May 15, 2024. Lori will not be subject to the earnings test until 2024 because she didn’t reach her MRA by the end of 2023. Lori will continue to receive her full supplement during 2024. The annual earnings survey will be sent to her early in 2025.

Let’s assume Lori earns $36,000 per year. On the earnings survey, she will report all earnings from 2024 received after reaching her MRA. That adds up to a little less than $21,000 (seven months of wages). The reduction to her supplement is computed at $1 for every $2 in earned income over the limit. The earnings limit amount for 2019 is $17,640 per year. If Josie earned $3,360 over the 2024 earnings limit, then her supplement would be reduced by dividing the amount over $3,360 in half, arriving at an annual reduction of $1,680. After the reduction is applied ($12,000 – $1,680), the new supplement rate becomes $10,320 annually, or $860 per month.

So, effective in July 2025, Lori will see her supplement reduced from $1,000 per month—which she had been receiving since retirement—to $860 a month.

Now suppose Lori decides to fully retire in 2026. Once she can provide proof of her earnings level going below the annual limit, she can file to restore the supplement. This proof is generally a tax return—in this case, her 2027 return, which would be the first to show the reduced income. After a long process of submitting new, lower wage reports to OPM and gaining approval to restore the supplement, it will be reinstated. The supplement ends at 62 for all FERS participants.

Should I let OPM know when my income changes?

Dan Jamison, a certified public accountant and retired FBI agent who has a lot of experience helping law enforcement personnel understand their retirement benefits, says it’s not a good idea to contact OPM and report job changes or earnings. Instead, he says, it’s better to wait to receive the earnings survey in the mail. Contact OPM immediately if you don’t receive an earnings survey by mid-May if you have reached your minimum retirement age by Dec. 31 and still haven’t turned 62.

Will the supplement be eliminated by Congress?

Policymakers have proposed eliminating the FERS supplement many times over the years—including this year. OPM has reported that such a move would save the government $18.7 billion over 10 years.

So far, the supplement is still available to eligible federal retirees. The FERS supplement is one of the benefits included when FERS was implemented that allows federal employees to plan for retirement with similar age and service requirements as employees who retire under the older Civil Service Retirement System.

So now with that being said, who would like to receive a Free Federal Retirement Review and take advantage of this provision before it goes away.  You can Schedule your Free Retirement Review here or give us a call at (877) 733-3877 x 1

The FERS Supplement Questions and Answers

By | Benefits, Federal Pay, Retirement | No Comments

The Federal Employees Retirement System annuity supplement is important for those covered under FERS who plan to retire before turning 62. The supplement bridges the time between the onset of retirement and the age you qualify for Social Security retirement—which is generally 62. This benefit provides a source of income that mimics the age 62 Social Security benefit, but is computed using only civilian federal service creditable to the FERS retirement benefit.

About half of all FERS employees are entitled to this benefit when they retire. The supplement ends when a recipient turns 62. After reaching the minimum retirement age until the supplement ends at 62, an earnings test is applied by the Office of Personnel Management that can cause a reduction or elimination of the supplement.

Since the FERS supplement can get complicated, let’s look at some key questions and answers about it.

Who is eligible to receive the supplement?

To receive the supplement, you must be eligible for an immediate, unreduced FERS retirement benefit. Some employees are immediately eligible for the FERS supplement when they retire. This includes those who retire with entitlement to an immediate annuity, such as employees who have reached their minimum retirement age with at least 30 years of creditable service or those at age 60 with at least 20 years.

The FERS supplement is especially significant to those who must retire early under special provisions that apply to certain groups of employees, including law enforcement officers, firefighters, air traffic controllers, National Guard technicians, Customs and Border Protection officers, nuclear materials couriers and special agents of the Diplomatic Security Service. It is generally payable at retirement for these special coverage employees when they retire as early as age 50 with 20 years of covered service. It’s sometimes available even earlier for employees eligible to retire when they complete 25 years of covered service. The mandatory retirement age for most of these employees is 57 (56 for air traffic controllers).

For employees who retire under discontinued service (involuntary) retirement provisions or under early retirement provisions (that is, a major reduction in force, reorganization, or transfer of function), the supplement is payable when they reach their MRA if they retire at a younger age.

Who is not eligible?

If you’re already 62 when you retire, you will be eligible for Social Security retirement rather than the FERS supplement. Employees who resign without being old enough or having enough service to qualify for an immediate retirement are not eligible for the supplement even though they may receive a deferred retirement at a later date.

Employees retiring at their MRA with at least 10 years but less than 30 years of service (known as “MRA+10” retirement) and those retiring at age 60 or 61 with more than 10 but less than 20 years, are not eligible for the supplement even though they may choose to postpone their retirement application. Disability retirees are also not eligible.

Who pays it?

There is no special application to receive the FERS supplement. If you are entitled to receive this benefit, it is included with the FERS basic retirement benefit, which is administered by OPM.

What is the earnings test and how is it applied?

Continued receipt of the annuity supplement is subject to an earnings test every year and can be affected by wages earned by the retiree. OPM conducts annual surveys of more than 77,000 supplement recipients to assess their earnings. These surveys are sent in April and must be returned by the beginning of June.

Let’s suppose Lori, a federal law enforcement officer, plans to retire at 52 on Dec. 31, 2019, with 20 years of service. Her birthdate is Nov. 15, 1967 and her minimum retirement age is 56 years and six months. She won’t be subject to the annual earnings test until she has reached that age.

Now, let’s fast-forward and see what happens when Lori turns 56 and six months. Assume she has been receiving a FERS supplement of $1,000 per month, or $12,000 annually.

She will reach her minimum retirement age on May 15, 2024. Josie will not be subject to the earnings test until 2024 because she didn’t reach her MRA by the end of 2023. Josie will continue to receive her full supplement during 2024. The annual earnings survey will be sent to her early in 2025.

Let’s assume Lori earns $36,000 per year. On the earnings survey, she will report all earnings from 2024 received after reaching her MRA. That adds up to a little less than $21,000 (seven months of wages). The reduction to her supplement is computed at $1 for every $2 in earned income over the limit. The earnings limit amount for 2019 is $17,640 per year. If Lori earned $3,360 over the 2024 earnings limit, then her supplement would be reduced by dividing the amount over $3,360 in half, arriving at an annual reduction of $1,680. After the reduction is applied ($12,000 – $1,680), the new supplement rate becomes $10,320 annually, or $860 per month.

So, effective in July 2025, Lori will see her supplement reduced from $1,000 per month—which she had been receiving since retirement—to $860 a month.

Now suppose Lori decides to fully retire in 2026. Once she can provide proof of her earnings level going below the annual limit, she can file to restore the supplement. This proof is generally a tax return—in this case, her 2027 return, which would be the first to show the reduced income. After a long process of submitting new, lower wage reports to OPM and gaining approval to restore the supplement, it will be reinstated. The supplement ends at 62 for all FERS participants.

Should I let OPM know when my income changes?

Dan Jamison, a certified public accountant and retired FBI agent who has a lot of experience helping law enforcement personnel understand their retirement benefits, says it’s not a good idea to contact OPM and report job changes or earnings. Instead, he says, it’s better to wait to receive the earnings survey in the mail. Contact OPM immediately if you don’t receive an earnings survey by mid-May if you have reached your minimum retirement age by Dec. 31 and still haven’t turned 62.

Will the supplement be eliminated by Congress?

Policymakers have proposed eliminating the FERS supplement many times over the years—including this year. OPM has reported that such a move would save the government $18.7 billion over 10 years.

So far, the supplement is still available to eligible federal retirees. The FERS supplement is one of the benefits included when FERS was implemented that allows federal employees to plan for retirement with similar age and service requirements as employees who retire under the older Civil Service Retirement System.

So now, would anyone be interested in a Free Retirement Review to take advantage of this provision before it goes away? Please visit our Contact Us Page to schedule your review today or call us at (877) 733-3877 x 1

Lawmakers Push to Allow Pension Contributions for Former Temporary Feds

By | Benefits, Federal Pay, Retirement | No Comments

Lawmakers from both parties introduced a bill Thursday that would allow all federal employees to make catch-up contributions to their retirement accounts to make up for time they spent in temporary positions.

The Federal Retirement Fairness Act (H.R. 2478), introduced by Reps. Derek Kilmer, D-Wash., and Tom Cole, R-Okla., would allow federal employees who have spent time in temporary and seasonal positions or an intermittent work status to contribute 1.3 percent of their base pay, plus interest, to the Federal Employees Retirement System. Doing so would grant the workers credit toward their defined benefit pension for their time as temporary employees.

Kilmer and Cole first introduced the bill last year, after they were alerted to the fact that federal employees at naval yards and air bases needed to work past retirement age to become eligible for full pension benefits. That bill did not receive a vote in the House.

“Many federal employees begin their careers in temporary positions before transitioning to permanent status,” Kilmer said in a statement Thursday. “This bill will ensure that all federal workers, from the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and beyond, have the opportunity to retire at the same time, regardless of how they started their careers.”

The Office of Personnel Management used to allow former temporary employees to make catch-up contributions, although the practice was discontinued in 1989 after the establishment of FERS.

The bill has broad support from federal employee and management organizations, including the American Federation of Government Employees, the National Federation of Federal Employees and the Federal Managers Association.

“[This legislation] provides long overdue pension parity to those federal workers who failed to receive possible pension credit for their federal service,” said Matt Biggs, secretary-treasurer of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers. “This bill recognizes that regardless of an employee’s status as temporary or permanent, workers should not be unjustly penalized.”

The bill’s introduction comes as the Trump administration is pushing for a new retirement system for term employees—workers hired on set contracts between one and four years—that would only offer access to the “401k” Federal Savings Plan , albeit with a more generous employer contribution.

It is unclear how this bill might interact with that proposal, if implemented. A spokesperson for Kilmer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

If Anyone is needing a free retirement Consultation, please visit our Contact Us Page.