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Return to Article: Bush seeks upgrade of retirement benefits processing

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  Please don't suggest that OPM go DFAS for assistance. The answer does not lie there; trust me -- DFAS has been screwing up civilian pay, vendor payments, and anything else they could get their hands on since inception. The reason military are paid correctly is that a military person's career is managed from the time they come into the service until retirement. That means accurate record keeping, assignment specific training for both current and future positions, and accountability for accomplishing both. Military records are well maintained and don't get lost. When a military person retires, that does not necessitate four or five different offices all scrambling to put together the pieces of paper that may or may not have been properly filed over a 30-plus career. Personally, I have recreated my personnel file twice in my career because the personnel office could not find my records. Thank goodness I keep my own up-to-date files. By the way, I recently retired, and it took 4 months from my date of retirement to get paid properly. Seven months if you count the fact that three months prior to retirement I submitted my retirement package to OPM as suggested by OPM. And that bite OPM takes until they figure out what you are actually entitled to, it's huge. God forbid they would overpay, so they so grossly underpay you that you wonder if retirement was such a good idea.

  GovExec.com reader Posted February 17, 2006 11:53 PM
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  Better be glad they don't follow the postal service policy. I was told of a lady who retired from the USPS and her former boss held her check for leave closeout in his safe for 11 months, and then suddenly discovered it was there. She had been waiting for that money for almost a year. Now, tell me somebody should not have been fired immediately over this. This is what causes postal personnel to "go postal." This is because Congress and the administration allow this kind of system to erupt and continue forever.

  Martin Posted February 16, 2006 4:25 PM
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  Maybe OPM should take a peek at the system used by the Defense Accounting & Finance Center. For years, military personnel have been retiring and receiving the correct retirement pay on the first of every month. Many servicemen and women have various periods of creditable service from a variety of mixes of reserve and active duty. Somehow, DAFC seems to get it right.

  Rob Hawes Posted February 13, 2006 7:00 PM
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  The thoughts of having a reinvention of the federal retirement pay system are so scary that I don't even want to think about it. The present system works as well as any of the pay systems we have had. I am sure the same excellent advice and study will go into this revision as it did in the new pay systems and new travel system. Millions of dollars spent with more red tape than a retiree can get accomplished. The problem is not with the system it is with the people that control it.

  If the records are correct that goes to OPM the probability of getting correct timely pay is extremely good. If you send in a retirement application that is full holes and inaccurate information, you can expect to get a delayed payment that may not represent your full pay for a few months. Wait until the improved system is put in, if you put in a bad application, there will be no pay or they can't even find the record.

  If it is not broke don't fix it! Fix the active employee pay systems first - prove that it can be done!

  Les Oden Happy With the Current System

  Les Oden Posted February 13, 2006 11:27 AM
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  If OPM is going to fumble around with this one like they have "fumbled- up" our FEHBP, we had better keep the paper until OPM knows what they are doing. A couple years ago OPM cut staffers for efficiency. Now they are so efficient that if you need to find out what you need to deposit from a period of Civil Service "Temporary" before you retire, you need to wait eight months!! I filed an application with that "office out in the Pennsylvania woods" back in September, via certified mail. In January (last month) they still had not "logged in" my request. When I asked why, the answer, with a straight face was, "we are at least eight months behind." So OPM, before you fritter more millions of my tax dollars away, don't you think you should catch up with what you are already doing?

  No Confidence in OPM

  GovExec.com reader Posted February 13, 2006 9:46 AM