Federal employee retirement news: news about retirement-related topics as it pertains to employees of the federal government. Topics include FERS, CSRS, the latest TSP performance, annual COLA updates, and more.
The Social Security Amendments of 1983 included a hefty payroll tax hike that was designed to generate large Social Security surpluses for about 30 years. These surpluses were supposed to be saved and invested in marketable U.S. Treasury bonds, which could later be resold to finance benefits for the baby boomers. The author says this has not happened and points to some examples.
Many FedSmith readers have commented on the excessive time it takes OPM to process the paperwork for full annuity payments. It is likely to get worse instead of better. Here’s why.
Inflation has been very low for the past two years and federal retirees and those receiving Social Security payments have not had an increase. That is likely to change in 2012. Here’s why and how much.
Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID) and Representative Peter Roskam (R-IL) have proposed legislation to permanently cap the dividends and capital gains tax rate at the current 15% level.
On April 20, 1983, one of the most significant developments in the history of Social Security legislation took place with great fanfare. It was the signing ceremony for the Social Security Amendments of 1983, which President Ronald Reagan called landmark legislation. The author says it laid the foundation for what was to become one of the greatest frauds ever perpetrated against Americans by the government.
Federal employees are often being asked to do more work without any more reward. A common lament is that the work keeps piling up as more employees leave, and it just isn’t worth it if retirement benefits are going to be re-structured, on top of it. The author offers some tips to see if retiring earlier is worth doing.
The OPM Office of the Inspector General has issued a report showing that payments from the federal government’s Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund to deceased annuitants has averaged $120 million over the last five years.
The author walks the reader through some examples to illustrate that the CSRS retirement system may not be better than the FERS retirement system, despite popular belief to the contrary.
The author says that there is nothing wrong with Social Security per se, but the money in the trust fund has been spent by politicians on both sides, rendering the program insolvent.
The President has released a proposal outlining his ideas for ways to cut the growing federal deficit. The plan aims to make as much as $3 trillion in cuts, some of which would directly affect federal employees if they were to be enacted.
