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Information on this page is provided by Roseanne Jefferson.
Roseanne is a retired USPS employee with an extensive background in USPS
retirement, disability retirement, OWCP, EEO, Labor Relations and HR.
She conducts individual and group counseling and is able to
comprehensively discuss the pros and cons of employees who are on OWCP,
disability retirement and regular retirement. Roseanne will be happy
to answer your postal retirement questions. Contact Roseanne at
roseanne.jefferson@icloud.com. |
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Postal Retirement
Q&A April 2014 |
Good Day Postal Employees
I am bursting
with joy�..I found out last night that a case
(involving a deceased postal employee with Basic
Life Insurance (& Option B 1X) coverage, that I
have been dealing with for well over a year,
appears finally have a resolve. Consistently
through the years of writing this column, it has
been a constant effort on my part to "force,
scare, threaten all of you�.to go into your eOPF,
and make sure the beneficiary forms for ALL of
facets your MONEY are protected." Should you pass
away, and the beneficiary forms that are in your
eOPF is what the USPS; FEGLI and OPM will use to
disperse the money�.
�..what
if�.really�.what if � you filled out those forms,
and for some reason�.those beneficiary forms did
NOT make it into your OPF. Take that to the next
step�.and those same forms that you filled out,
were perhaps misfiled in "someone else's OPF" or
somehow not filed at all���.AND THEN�those same
huge OPF's with all of your hiring information,
all the Form 50's (aka Notification of Personnel
Action), every single thing about YOU, right down
to your original application for employment, are
taken WHOLESALE�meaning EVERY postal employee's
file, were taken and sent to a "scanning site", to
transmit ALL POSTAL EMPLOYEE'S FIILES to an
individual electronic files an "eOPF", (that YOU
can see on line) and that is EXACTLY how it
happened.
So now, there are NO huge paper
folder's (OPF's) in District Offices, or in
individual Post Offices, but ONLY the eOPF
(Electronic Official Personnel Folders) that are
on-line for YOU to review. What if those
beneficiary forms never made it to your "paper"
file�..then CLEARLY!!! they are NOT going to be in
your electronic file, the eOPF. So you can call
HRSSC and request a "Beneficiary Package, that
will include all of the forms that are listed
below, that should be up to date and reflect your
choices TODAY�not necessarily the choices you made
the day you were hired.
FEGLI Life
Insurance Beneficiary Form SF 2823 (filed in eOPF)
CSRS Retirement Beneficiary Form SF 2808 (filed in
eOPF)
FERS Retirement Beneficiary Form SF 3102
(filed in eOPF)
Unpaid Compensation SF 1152
(filed in eOPF)
TSP Beneficiary Form TSP-3
(filed with TSP and NOT in your eOPF)
As a
Manager, one of the most important issues I had
was to continually ensure that OPF filing (of
course this is when we had paper files�the
ORIGINAL OPF (Official Personnel File/Folder), you
know ones you could "hold in your hand", that
beneficiary forms were to be filed daily - no
excuses... that was just SOP (Standard Operating
Procedure) in personnel, and rightfully so. In
dealing with this case, it's hard not to put
yourself in the place of the deceased postal
employee, and wonder "could this happen to my
family"? Even more so, when�.and let's face
it�postal employees many times have been married
more than once (OH, oh no, �.not like the JOB
could have had anything to do with that!! hmm). So
what if you remarried (as many postal employees
do) and you fill out new beneficiary forms, what
if the "HR" person at your district was not as "knowledgable
or didn't truly understand what the impact would
be if a situation like this occurred. I have said
this before, and I will say this again�A
beneficiary form TRUMPS a Will�.and even if this
Will was written after the beneficiary form, the
"financial" entity can ONLY honor that beneficiary
who is on that form�.it's a legal document.
You must know by now that this case came to
that. What would it be like�.it could be like some
cases turn out�that an Ex husband/ Ex wife (who
could have been an X for years), winds up getting
the Unpaid Compensation money. This could happen
if you passed away as an employee, the unpaid
compensation, is your last pay check (final work
hours) and all Earned Annual Leave What if that Ex
got $15,390.47 and the widow/widower didn't
because that SF1152 Unpaid Compensation
Beneficiary Form, was not filled out after a
second marriage, or not filed in the employee's
OPF, because that is exactly what would (AND DID)
happen. And then the second spouse (of many
years), widow/widower of the postal employee was
left to "fight it out" because a beneficiary form
was not filed in the OPF, and so not scanned to
the eOPF�not because the postal employee didn't
fill out the form, but because the form wasn't
filed in the OPF. Now add this to the mess, but
YOU have a copy of that form in your hand, a
signed copy of that form (that was signed�and
entered by the HR person)�.BUT since it wasn't in
the eOPF, it didn't exist. BUT IT DID EXIST. The
fact that it wasn't filed properly, the fact that
it was signed off by the HR person, made that a
legal document�15 months of fighting for what
their postal spouse wanted them to have.
I
am hoping that once this postal spouse can finally
pay the mortuary, the legal bills associated with
the case, try to put their life back together and
finally mourn the loss of their spouse without
this hideous problem of life insurance money, that
was always theirs to begin with, can heal after
this terrible ordeal. I am hoping that in the next
month or so I am able to publish a letter from
this spouse so that you can know first hand what
they went through�.maybe THEIR WORDS will convince
you, because I have tried!!
Maybe this too
will add to the issue, as it relates to postal
employees, a beneficiary form NEVER gets REPLACED.
Once the beneficiary form (this legal document I
tell you about) was/is filed in your OPF, it
became a part of an official record. To change the
beneficiary, you fill out another form�.THAT FIRST
(or second, third, or fourth) BENEFICIARY FORM
DOES NOT GET REMOVED FROM YOUR FILE/OPF. The next
beneficiary form (the newer one) is filed as well,
but that first, or second, or thirty-third form
stays in that file. The notion that you take out
that one beneficiary form and replace it with
another is incorrect, at least incorrect
procedures. I have some "beneficiary forms" in my
OPF (filled out in, let's say "another life") I
sure would like to have "yanked" out of the file
myself! But they couldn't be because they are
legal documents�..as well as federal documents.
And that should be a validation to you all out
there, that I am well versed in what being a
"Custodian of the Records" really means.
Comment/Response # 1.
Hello, Roseanne! I
just finished your column and enjoyed it as usual.
I did want to add something to Q. 5 as reason
#132 not to return to work for the USPS or any
federal agency. The person who took the same VERA
I did on 1/31/13, will have gotten $15,000 VSIP
(the second part will be paid this May) which has
to be repaid BEFORE being rehired in the federal
government within 5 years of retirement. That
seems yet another reason to NOT go back to the
USPS to work (besides so many OTHER reasons!).
As you constantly say, retirement is so sweet!
It does sadden me to read how many people
reconsider returning to work. Thanks again for
clarifying the madness for so many folks! N
Q 1. I will retire this year. I have received
my retirement booklet. There are about seven forms
that I was instructed to fill out and sign, one of
the forms has to do with my TSP account and it
gives me different options for monthly payment
annuity accounts. I want to leave my TSP account
in place after retirement but I do not want an
annuity account that locks me into paying me a set
amount each month. I want to be free to roll this
account over into other investments if the time
comes. But I did not receive a form to just leave
my TSP account as is and I know by age 70 I will
need to make yearly withdrawals. It just seems as
if they are trying to make me sign up for a
monthly pay out annuity account by not providing
any other form but to sign up for a locked in
monthly payment system which I do not want. Do you
have any information on how I make sure they just
leave my account as is or if not who I can talk
with about this and a phone number. Thank you
A 1. There is NOTHING that you have to do to
accomplish what you want, which is to leave the
money in TSP in place until you decide what you
want to do with it. You have until you are 70
years and 6 months to make that decision. Just so
you are CLEAR�there is NO form to say "I want to
leave my money in TSP"�.the only forms are to take
it out, in some form or fashion�..stop
stressing�you have done everything right and the
way you wanted (at least from what you have stated
in your email). NO WORRIES�.your money in TSP is
fine and still there. I always feel edgy when an
employee/retiree says I was instructed to fill out
and sign�..that is NOT retirement is all about
"filling out and signing"�.there is so much more
to know that is never discussed. Roseanne
Q
2. Hi- I plan on retiring in 4 years, I am a FERS
hired in 1984 and I bought back 5 1/2 years
military which has been credited to my total years
already, I'm wondering about the social security
supplement we are to receive and how much it is
and how it works, I was born in 1958 and am 55
years old, i'm thinking in dec 2018 on retiring
giving me a total of 40 yrs with military. Any
info you can give me would be appreciated, I am a
letter carrier.
A 2. Hi M, Typically the
Special Supplement is rated between $30-$35 per
month, times the number of POSTAL years worked�.OK
so I capitalized Postal�.of course there is a
reason�.you are not paid the supplement for the
"paid back military years"�So I would calculate
(in the middle of the 2 figures and use $33.00 per
month, times the number of postal years and you
should be very close to calculating your Special
Supplement. Roseanne
Q 3. I plan on
retiring on Nov. 1st, 2014. I am a letter carrier
under CSRS. I carried over 440 hours of annual
leave from last leave year. Can I continue to
accumulate my annual leave and sell back more than
the 440 hours of annual leave when I retire ?
A 3. No. Craft employees can only carry over
440 from the prior year. If you are suggesting
this, because it's not really clear�you want to
retire at the end of the year, and then sell
anything OVER the 440�correct? The answer is still
no, because, and many (not even EAS employee's)
don't know this�but when you sell back annual
leave, you are actually selling the leave that is
from the coming year, and if you are retiring,
there is no leave coming for the next year.
Roseanne
Q 4. Hi Roseanne, First of all,
I'm so glad to hear Hope is in remission. It's a
wicked disease and my prayers are with you all.
I'm not sure if you can help me with this question
or not. I retired from the USPS on 1/31/2013 at
the age of 58. I had been there for nearly 28
years, all of them under FERS. I accepted the VERA
that was offered to the clerks the previous fall,
and get the SRS plus my pension. I understand that
we have to follow the Social Security earnings
limit when we work after retirement so we don't
lose part of the SRS. Last year that didn't matter
because that was the year I retired. I was able to
collect unemployment for the first 26 weeks. In PA
you are eligible for unemployment if you accept an
early retirement offer due to an
employer-initiated reduction in force. (The post
office did appeal, but we all won.) I started a
part-time job in October, but it was not a
well-paid job. On our W-2's last year, the first
$10000 of the buyout was counted as part of our
earnings.
My question is this: does the
second part of our buyout ($5000) that we will
receive in May count toward the Social Security
earnings limit? I have called OPM twice on this
and have gotten two different answers, one yes,
one no. I have been working two part-time jobs and
will have to quit one of them very soon if the
$5000 counts toward the limit. I really don't want
to lose part of my SRS, but at the same time,
paying all the insurances eats up most of my
regular pension, so financially I still need to
work until I'm old enough for Social Security.
Thank you so much for your help!! SP
A 4.
Hi SP, Congrats on retiring and on being able to
receive the unemployment!! I would think that if
they (IRS) considered the $10,000 "earnings" then
most likely that would also be considered
"earning's". This is the same dilemma every FERS
employee has when considering the Spec Supp versus
working. The problem stems from the fact that a
FERS retirement is a 3 tiered plan, and that each
"tier" does NOT weigh one-third. FERS is only 25%
of the retirement income, SS is 35% of the monthly
income and TSP was to be 45% of the monthly
income. Unless TSP was funded FULLY, (meaning you
have nearly double in TSP monthly income as the
FERS annuity check. I would continue to call OPM
for a definitive answer�.on the 5G's�.but prepare
for it to be considered income. Roseanne
R
4. Roseanne, Thank you so much for the quick
reply. I've been trying to call OPM every day and
finally got thru yesterday morning. The woman I
spoke with yesterday said it is counted as earned
income as far as taxes go, but will not be
considered earned income for the SS earnings limit
test, as it was not actually earned. She said a
questionnaire will be sent out at the end of April
(after taxes are normally done) and there will be
a place on that to show that the incentive money
was not earned income. She was actually the first
one from OPM to take time to answer my questions
and back the answers up with research. I have
already quit one of my jobs, just in case, but
after I see the questionnaire and see it with my
own eyes, I can always pick up another part-time
job. Thank you again for your help!! I'll let you
know what happens! SP
Q 5. Roseanne:
Yesterday, the XYZ District held a telecon on the
upcoming RIF of Postmasters (9/30/14). A question
was asked about going to craft and we were told
that we would have to take the Clerk test again if
we took it before 2005. Is this your
understanding? Thanks.
A 5. What a crock of
bullshit!! Of all the employees that have changed
crafts' or EAS employees that went from management
to craft NEVER that I have EVER, EVER heard
of�..had to take a test or a re-test� before or
after 2005�..So NO, not my understanding, AND NO
ONE ELSE'S either!!�.and ask them WHERE in the
contract(s); ELM, EL 311/312 or in just an
official " anydamnthing" does it show language
that stated�anything that related 2005 as a
"cut-off" year (or any year for that matter). MAKE
THEM SHOW YOU IN WRITING, it's not true�.Roseanne
Till we speak again��.Roseanne |
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