Jerry Sliwowski/Shutterstock.com

Here’s Some Good News About Your Retirement Benefit

It’s safe for the next 80 years, says the Congressional Research Service.

Are you in the mood for some encouraging news?

Every year, the Congressional Research Service issues a report called, “Federal Employees’ Retirement System: Budget and Trust Fund Issues.” This year’s report states that there is no point over the next 80 years at which the assets of the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund are projected to run out. The CSRDF provides retirement benefit payments for federal retirees covered under both the Civil Service Retirement System and the Federal Employees Retirement System.

The CSRDF held a balance of $835.7 billion at the end of fiscal 2013, and obligations from the fund totaled $77.5 billion. Those consisted mostly of annuity payments to retirees and their survivors. The fund also covers payments to estates of deceased federal employees and retirees of any money left in the employee or retiree’s retirement account. Those added up to $445 million in fiscal 2013. Administrative expenses for the fund totaled $128 million, or 0.17% of total obligations. (It’s also interesting to note that $2 million was transferred from the CSRDF to the Merit Systems Protection Board last year to pay for favorable retirement decisions for employees and retirees who won their appeals of a retirement decision or error.)

To help you understand what the CSRDF really is, remember that FERS is actually three different retirement systems: a basic retirement benefit, administered by the Office of Personnel Management and financed by the CSRDF; the Social Security retirement benefit, administered by the Social Security Administration and financed by the Social Security trust fund; and the Thrift Savings Plan, administered by the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board and financed by employee and employer contributions.

The long-term costs of paying the FERS retirement benefit are about half as much as future CSRS retirement benefits due to the less generous computation of the retirement benefit. That means the long-range costs of FERS are lower.

Employees contributed $3.5 billion to the CSRDF in fiscal 2013 to finance FERS and CSRS retirement benefits. Those came in the form of salary witholdings of 0.8 percent for those under FERS (although that percentage is going up for employees hired more recently) and 7 percent for CSRS. It also gained nearly $22 billion through contributions from federal agencies on behalf of their employees. For CSRS employees, agencies match the 7 percent employees contribute. For FERS, the figure is 11.9 percent for employees hired prior to 2013 -- and up to 24.6 percent for law enforcement officers, firefighters and certain CIA employees hired before 2013.

CSRS had an unfunded liability of $33 billion in 2013 that was covered by the general fund of the Treasury.  But the CRS report notes that this does not pose a threat to the solvency of the fund. The unfunded liability totaled $789.9 billion in fiscal 2012, and according to actuarial estimates it will continue to rise until 2015, when it will peak at $855.9 billion. Then it is projected to steadily decline until it turns into a surplus of $46.1 billion by 2090.

The CSRDF is similar to Social Security because by law, 100 percent of its assets must be invested in special issue U.S. Treasury Bonds or other bonds backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government. When the trust fund needs cash to pay retirement benefits, it redeems the bonds and the Treasury disburses an equivalent dollar value of the payments to retired annuitants.

Because the bonds held by the trust fund are a claim on the U.S. Treasury, they ultimately are paid for by the taxpayers. I guess that means federal employees are partially responsible for paying their own retirement benefits in more ways than one.

(Image via Jerry Sliwowski/Shutterstock.com)

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.