GETTING THE WORD OUT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP89-00066R000500150001-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 26, 2014
• Sequence Number: 1
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2014/02/26:
CIA-RDP89-00066R000500150001-3
Getting the Word Out
By Mike Causey
Washington Post Staff Writer
any people who retired
or left the government
since Dec. 22 have the
option of applying for
:membership in the Federal
Employees Retirement System.
:The switch to FERS will
? protect their future Social
: Security benefits and can be
:made even though they no
: longer work for Uncle Sam or
are already retired.
: The opportunity to sign up
: for FERS is a bonanza for
people who quit or retired
unaware of a last-minute
change Congress made just a
? few days before the Dec. 31
deadline to switch from the old
Civil Service Retirement
System to FERS.
' Workers who retire under
the old CSRS system and who
. collect an unearned (spousal or
survivor) Social Security benefit
will have that benefit reduced
$2 for every $3 they receive in
federal pension. The reduction
is a result of the public pension
offset law; It applies only to an
unearned Social Security
benefit, not to one the worker
earned himself.
On Dec. 22, Congress
decided that employees who
switched to FERS by Dec. 31
would be exempt from the
public pension offset, even if
they worked only one day under
FERS. But many employees
who would have switched to
FERS had they known of the
change didn't get the word until
the open season deadline had
passed. Because of that, the ?
Office of Personnel
Management and the Social
Security Administration last
month decided that employees
who would have switched to
FERS had they known of the
public pension offset ruling
could do so by June 30. The
signup option was first reported
here April 21 and confirmed,
after some false starts, by OPM
on April 25.
On Friday, an official of
OPM's retirement policy office
said the signup option for
retirees and those who have
otherwise left the government
applies to persons who left on
or after Dec. 22 and who affirm
that they would have switched
to FERS had they known of the
last-minute congressional action
that exempted FERS enrollees
from the public pension offset
policy. If their agency accepts
their application, their future
spousal or survivor Social
Security benefits won't be
reduced if they get a public
pension as well.
Details of the FERS
opportunity for recent retirees
are outlined in an OPM
Retirement Counselor Letter
(No. 88-108, dated May 11).
People considering the switch
should read the policy, and all
its potential ramifications on
their pensions, before making
the move. Although OPM's
letter explains the complex
policy in detail, it went to only
100 agency retirement
counselors. That means that
most of the people affected by
the policy?who have left or
retired?probably haven't
gotten the word, unless they
happen to be married to a
retirement counselor.
OPM and the Social Security
Administration are to be
commended for working out a
system to right a wrong (a
wrong done by Congress) to
thousands of present and future
retirees. But OPM's system of
getting the word out to
potential beneficiaries, after it
had done the decent thing,
needs a lot of work.
Retirees to Meet
The Gaithersburg chapter of
the National Association of
Retired Federal Employees
meets at 12:30 p.m. tomorrow at
the Asbury Methodist Village in
Gaithersburg. The chapter will,.
elect officers and commemorate
the 200th anniversary of the
Constitution. Call Roma Diehl at
869-7348. On June 17, the
chapter's luncheon speaker is to
be Rep. Constance A. Morella
(R-Md.).
THE LOTTERIES: May 21
Declassified and Approved For Release 2014/02/26:
CIA-RDP89-00066R000500150001-3 not appear in all Sunday editions.