Living costs are on the rise. That puts federal retirees on track for a 1.9 percent cost of living adjustment in January. But that's only if lawmakers don't change the way inflation is measured. Congress and the White House both say the chained CPI would be a more accurate measure. But the chained CPI has lots of critics and foes. They say it's like switching your habits from eating steak for dinner to eating dog food. Web Editor Shefali Kapadia joined Tom Temin and Emily Kopp on the Federal Drive to discuss federal employees' reaction online.
NARFE Legislative Director Jessica Klement, and Federal Times Senior Writer Andy Medici will discuss chained CPI, pay raises, and other issues affecting feds. July 23, 2014
How much cash would it take for you to accept a buyout at your agency? Is there a magic number you're looking for? Web Manager Julia Ziegler joined Tom Temin and Emily Kopp on the Federal Drive to discuss what people are saying online.
If you live and work in the Washington area, are you less happy and more nervous in the civil service than your identical twin who's a fed in Indianapolis or Denver? Maybe there's a good reason, Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says.
NITP Senior Benefits Director Tammy Flanagan will answer your retirement questions. July 16, 2014
The Congressional Budget Office estimates the Senate's postal reform plan would save just under $17 billion. Changes to the agency would include maintaining increased postal rates and cutting delivery to five days per week.
The Smart Savings Act would make the Lifecycle Funds the default investment option in the Thrift Savings Plan for new federal employees.
The Air Force will offer early retirement and buyouts to civilian personnel, in order to eliminate nearly 3,500 positions, officials announced Monday. The service estimates the cuts will save the Air Force $1.6 billion over the next five years.
Remember the buyouts of the 1990s? Maybe you were just starting out and it saved your job. Well that was then, and this is now. Forget everything you knew about buyouts and start all over again, Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says.
Making the call to turn your investment decisions over to a financial planner is a big decision for just about anybody, but there are several important factors that make that decision even more complicated for federal employees. Tammy Flanagan is Senior Benefits Director for the National Institute of Transition Planning. She's writing about some of the elements of that decision making process for soon-to-retire feds, and shared her thoughts on In Depth with guest host Jared Serbu.
Thanks to summertime and the upcoming election, even the most anti-bureaucrat politicians have called a time out in their whack-a-fed agendas. But there are some real threats out there.
The Transportation Security Administration has received approval to offer early retirements this calendar year.
A lot of people are saying that the relentless wave of retirements is a threat to the health of the federal workforce. But there's a problem on the other end of the age spectrum too -- OPM data shows there's been a sharp drop in the number of federal employees under the age of 30 over the last few years. As of last year, those younger workers made up just 8 percent of the workforce. Jeff Neal is senior vice president of ICF International and former chief human capital officer at the Department of Homeland Security. He explained the numbers behind the issue on In Depth with Francis Rose.
Benefits expert John Elliott will discuss what you should be doing to prepare for retirement, and OPM Director Katherine Archuleta will talk about the status of phased retirement, the retirement-claims backlog and other civil service issues. July 9, 2014
Two letters sent from Capitol Hill in call for the Office of Personnel Management to explain why it's taking so long to release final phased retirement regulations, and demand a revised timeline for action. Phased retirement was passed into law two years ago this week.