FederalDaily - April 26, 2005

Feds Surveyed about Retirement Readiness

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is planning to conduct a survey on federal employees' readiness in preparing for retirement. The results of the study will help the federal government know how to better educate federal employees on the need for retirement savings and investment, how to plan for retirement, and how to calculate the retirement investment needed to meet their retirement goals. The plan calls for the survey to be distributed to a sample of approximately 90,000 federal employees. The 20-minute survey will be completed on-line this month, according to OPM. The survey will be used to develop a Retirement Readiness Profile which will provide employees with their individual state of readiness.

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EEOC Reports Fewer Complaints

More than 19,000 discrimination complaints were filed against federal agencies in FY 2004 and agencies took nearly 300 days on average to investigate each complaint. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued its annual report on the federal workforce for 2004 last week. “The volume of complaints filed is still too high, and the time it takes to investigate complaints is still too long,” said EEOC Chair Cari M. Dominguez. She said that despite the fact that the number of complaints in 2004 decreased by 6 percent from 2003. The EEOC report said the most frequent reasons people made claims were reprisal and age discrimination. It also said that complainants obtained approximately $55 million in total monetary benefits—which was down from $61 million in 2003. For more on this story, see the upcoming May 2, 2005, issue of Federal Employees News Digest.

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Bill Proposes Repealing WEP

Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, introduced legislation in the House last week that would repeal the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP). The Public Servant Retirement Protection Act, H.R. 1714, would change the Social Security formula applied to public servants who have also contributed funds to the Social Security system. WEP reduces the Social Security benefits of a retired federal worker who paid into Social Security and also receives a government pension. Brady said, “ The windfall elimination provision unfairly discriminates against public servants who’ve earned two pensions. If you’ve earned two pensions, you should be able to collect two pensions. It’s your hard earned money and you deserve to keep it.” Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, was expected to introduce the same bill in the Senate.

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Military Officials Discuss High TRICARE Costs

Rising medical costs and the expansion of health benefits for military retirees, Guardsmen and Reservists, and their families, are putting a strain on the military health care system, Department of Defense (DoD) health and personnel officials testified on April 21 before the Senate Armed Services Committee’s personnel subcommittee. David S. C. Chu, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said rising costs can be attributed in part to increased enrollment in TRICARE benefit programs. Dr. William Winkenwerder Jr., assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, said TRICARE expenses have doubled over the past five years from $18 billion to nearly $36 billion this year. He added that the cost TRICARE’s pharmacy program has increased 500 percent since 2001.

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