Congress & your pension plan: Should you be worried?

Your Turn

Congress & your pension plan: Should you be worried?

How would proposed changes to your federal pension plan affect you? Find out when NARFE's Jessica Klement and Jill Talley join host Mike Causey on this week's Y...

April 10, 2018 6:03 pm

1 min read

(This show originally aired on February 28, 2018)

Would you mind if Congress made your retirement plan more expensive while you are working and then a lot less valuable when you finally retire?

Guess what? They are trying to.

In addition to a proposed pay raise freeze in January 2019, the White House and Congress are recommending that Congress do away with cost-of-living adjustments for both current and future retirees under the FERS program, which covers most feds still working.

They also want to, among other things, reduce the rate of return on the Thrift Savings Plan’s Government Securities Investment (G) fund, and base federal pensions for new retirees on the average of the highest five years of salary instead of the highest three.

So what do these proposals mean? What are the odds that any (or all) of them will be enacted into law this year? Or at some point during your career? We’ll find out today when we talk with Jessica Klement, staff vice president, advocacy; and Jill Talley, deputy director, public relations, from the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association. They’ll be guests on our Your Turn radio show. That’s 10 a.m. ET at Federal News Radio or WFED 1500 AM.