The combination of buyouts, a surge in baby boomer retirements and a hostile Congress may make this the worst year, maybe ever, to consider retiring, Senior Cor...
(This column was originally published March 9, 2012. Senior Correspondent Mike Causey is out of the office today, so we’re revisiting one his recent columns. Check out a new Federal Report Monday.)
Thanks to buyouts, baby boomers, plumbing problems and an active anti-fed Congress, the year 2012 is shaping up to be one of the worst-ever times to retire.
For that matter, 2011 wasn’t so hot either.
At the end of February, there were about 53,000 retirement applications in the Office of Personnel Management pipeline, according to the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association. While that’s a lot, the number was down from the previous month. It also means that some, maybe lots, of retirees are getting interim payments that are 10 percent to 60 percent (in extreme cases) less than their anticipated monthly annuity.
The average wait time is about four months (OPM’s goal is to trim it to 60 days). But some people have been getting reduced annuity payments for much longer time periods. OPM has made unclogging the retirement pipeline and streamlining the process a top priority. New people have been hired to process the claims (still mostly a paperwork production). But it will take time to get them up to speed.
And things may get worse before they get better. For example:
Some fed-watchers say it will be sometime next year before OPM can completely reduce the retirement backlog and insure that retirees get what they were expecting as quickly as possible. Meantime, unless you have a stash of cash to support yourself, think carefully about retiring now. Or even later this year.
NEARLY USELESS FACTOID
By Jack Moore
Ants actually have some human characteristics. They stretch when they wake up, according to UselessFacts.net. They also “appear to yawn in a very human manner before taking up the tasks of the day.”
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Mike Causey is senior correspondent for Federal News Network and writes his daily Federal Report column on federal employees’ pay, benefits and retirement.
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