House passes sick leave credit for FERS employees
June 24th, 2009 | Pay & Benefits | Posted by Elise Castelli
The House approved a measure tonight that would allow federal employees under the Federal Employees Retirement System to count their unused sick leave toward their retirement pension calculations. The measure could bring the newer FERS system in line with the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS), which always allowed that calculation.
The Disabled Military Retiree Relief Act of 2009, H.R. 2990, passed in a 404-0 vote. It now moves to the Senate, which stripped similar provisions from a bill giving the Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate tobacco.
In addition, to allowing FERS employees count sick their unused leave toward retirement, the bill also allows FERS employees who return to federal service to get credit for their previous service and to redeposit their retirement annuities.
CSRS employees also benefit from the bill. The legislation lets CSRS employees who choose to work part-time at the end of their careers collect their full annuities.
The bill also extends locality pay to Alaska, Hawaii and U.S. territories. The transition to locality pay will start in 2010 and end in 2012.
Tags: CSRS, FERS, locality pay, sick leave
House to vote on TSP, sick leave bill
April 1st, 2009 | Pay & Benefits | Posted by Steve Losey
Update: HR 1804 passed by a unanimous voice vote today. It will now head to the Senate, which is expected to consider the bill as part of the larger tobacco bill.
Original post: The House is preparing to vote on a bill containing several provisions affecting federal employees this afternoon. HR 1804, the Federal Retirement Reform Act, would:
- Automatically enroll all new employees in the Thrift Savings Plan’s G Fund. The Pentagon would decide on its own whether new military service members would be automatically enrolled.
- Create a Roth 401(k) option in the TSP.
- Allow the board governing the TSP to create additional investment funds for participants.
- Allow employees under the Federal Employees Retirement System to count their unused sick leave towards calculating their retirement annuities.
- Make sure Civil Service Retirement System employees who work part time at the end of their careers are paid their full annuities. Due to a faulty 1986 law, CSRS employees who go part time before retirement find their pre-1986 service is incorrectly calculated as part-time service, costing them hundreds or thousands of dollars each year. This bill would fix that error.
Floor debate is expected to begin at 1 p.m.
Tags: CSRS, FERS, Roth option, sick leave, Thrift Savings Plan
A warning for CSRS spouses
February 3rd, 2009 | Office of Personnel Management | Posted by Steve Losey
Two retirement security groups are highlighting a little-known provision in the federal government’s rules that could hurt some spouses or children of federal employees under the Civil Service Retirement System. If a CSRS employee leaves the federal government, but dies before applying for a pension, that employee’s spouses, former spouses or children would not receive a survivor annuity, the Pension Rights Center and Women’s Pension Project note.
In a letter sent yesterday to the acting director of the Office of Personnel Management, the groups asked the agency to send a notice to CSRS employees reminding them of this wrinkle.
Survivors of Federal Employees Retirement System employees who leave the government and die before applying for a pension are eligible to receive a survivor annuity. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, introduced a bill in 2007 that would have ensured CSRS employees’ survivors would get an annuity regardless of when the employee left federal service, but it died in committee.
Tags: CSRS, pension, retirement