By Tom Mc Nemar / Shutterstock.com

TSP Proposes New Shutdown Loan Rules, OPM Considers Health Care Portal, and More

A weekly round-up of pay and benefits news.

Officials with the agency that administers the federal government’s 401(k)-style retirement savings program published an interim rule Tuesday that would ensure federal employees impacted by a government shutdown can take out loans on their Thrift Savings Plan accounts regardless of how long the lapse in appropriations is expected to last.

Posted in the Federal Register by the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, which governs the TSP, the rule narrowly applies to federal workers who are either furloughed or forced to work without pay during a lapse in appropriations. Before this week, any employee in a “non-pay status” was eligible to take out a loan, so long as that status was expected to last less than 30 days.

As a result, there was uncertainty regarding whether employees at unfunded agencies could apply for TSP loans during the 35-day partial government shutdown, especially as it stretched into the third and fourth week. Earlier this month, TSP officials reported that they saw a 5 percent increase in the issuance of TSP loans during the lapse in appropriations, compared to a 26 percent increase in withdrawals, a more onerous process that forces participants to incur a 10 percent tax penalty and stop contributing to their accounts for six months.

In the rule filing, officials said they took great pains in order to come up with a way to implement the rule immediately.

“This interim rule applies only to participants who are furloughed or excepted from furlough (i.e., continuing to work and earn pay, but their pay is delayed until appropriations are authorized) due to a government shutdown,” the rule stated. “The FRTIB’s staff and contractors have designed manual workarounds to highly automated business processes in order to make this interim rule effective immediately so these participants will have access [to] TSP loans in the event of another government shutdown.”

Additionally, the rule allows TSP participants to request a suspension of their loan payments in the event of a shutdown to avoid the potential that they could default. And the agency is reexamining how it handles TSP loan applications from federal employees in other forms of non-pay status.

“Participants who are not receiving pay for other reasons (e.g., administrative furlough, voluntary leave of absence, seasonal work, sabbatical, disciplinary suspension) remain ineligible to request a loan,” the rule stated. “The FRTIB is considering whether to allow these participants to request loans in non-pay status and will address this subject in the final rule.”

Meanwhile, the Office of Personnel Management is thinking about a new way to help federal workers decide which insurance plan to enroll in as part of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. Meritalk reported Monday that the agency has issued a Request for Information seeking vendors to develop a “one-stop shop” portal for employees to compare and then enroll in health care plans.

Although OPM currently offers the ability to compare different FEHB plans on its website, the enrollment process and other customer service functions are largely decentralized across a multitude of agencies’ HR departments.

Among the functions OPM hopes to include in the portal are enrollment and decision-making support, enrollment processing, as well as enrollment and premium reconciliation and data collection and reporting. Responses to the request are due March 11.

On Tuesday, OPM announced that it is extending the deadline for the Combined Federal Campaign, the federal government’s annual charity giving effort, until Feb. 22.

The campaign was disrupted by the partial government shutdown, as donations are primarily made by way of payroll deductions. As a result, many payroll offices at unfunded agencies were not open to receive or process CFC pledges. Additionally, federal workers impacted by the shutdown would have been unlikely to make charity donations without knowing when they would next receive a pay check.

Although the deadline for making donations through the campaign was delayed, OPM said in a press release that money still will begin being disbursed to charities on April 1 as originally scheduled.

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.