NATCA News Alert (Retirement Benefits)

[GulfCharlie]

Brothers and Sisters,

Last Friday, the Director of the Office of Personnel Management sent a letter to Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Paul Ryan with the Administration's legislative proposal to cut federal employees' retirement benefits, including those of Air Traffic Controllers. The Administration proposes to:
(1) eliminate the annuity supplement (Social Security annuity supplement)
(2) increase FERS retirement contributions 1% per year until the contributions reach 7.25% of each employee's pay
(3) reduce CSRS cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) by 0.5% each year and eliminate COLAs for FERS for all current and future retirees
(4) modify the CSRS and FERS annuity calculations to be based upon a high-5 years rather than the current high-3 years.

NATCA already has begun vigorously opposing these attacks on federal employee wages and benefits, as we have done in the past when similar proposals were included in the President's 2019 fiscal year budget proposal.

We expect that you will see media coverage about these proposals and related issues. We wanted to make you aware of the situation as soon as possible and let you know that we are already working to oppose the proposals, as well as integrating our response into our NATCA in Washington event, which runs May 20 - May 23.

As we learn more about these proposals and their legislative path in Congress, we will update you with those details. We also will call on you to engage on these issues if any of these proposals begin to move forward in Congress.

In Solidarity,

Paul Rinaldi, NATCA President
Trish Gilbert, NATCA Executive Vice President

 

[ATCJoe85]

Lovely.
I'm not sure how SSA supplement plays into retirement. Is that just Social Security in general? Never figured I'd be getting anything from SS anyway (23 years to MRA).
Aren't most new employees paying 5%? So if this went through it'd be a 2.25% increase for some and a 5.85% for others? Wouldn't be the end of the world, but it'd be a chunk! My concern is more along the line of they increase us way up and then in 15-20 years they cut FERS altogether. I'm not relying on FERS for retirement, that's for sure.
Three doesn't personally affect me, but there is no logic in "cost of living is going ever higher, so let's cut cost of living allowances".
I see four as being of least impact. Sure we would end up with less, but what kind of increases in the last 5 years of our career do we expect to see anyways? (Other than the obvious transfers many people do, which would need to happen 5 years in advance instead of 3)

 

[Move78]

5.85% pay cut, sick. Dohs Libs got so pwned doh...

 

[AB19]

So how does this affect pay, does this affect locality? Does this mean they match more on fers? What does this mean for retirement?

 

[jdatc]

Less pay, as you will pay more for your retirement. Less benefit as they will takeaway the supplement so you better find another job when they kick you out at 56, since there will be nothing to bridge the gap. Oh, and less money every year in retirement because they will cut COLA. Oh, and the high 5 will hurt you a little too.

If they wanted to get rid of FERS, that’s fine, but you should have given me all that money toward my 401k instead. I would have been happy investing all that money. It’s shit when they promise one thing, then take it away.

 

[GMX]

Social Security is underfunded. Most public pensions are underfunded. I'm afraid the FERS annuity will be underfunded too. I'm pretty lucky to only pay 1.3% into it and at that contribution it will be great to receive retirement income if it's there. However, at 7.25% I'd rather have the ability to opt out and invest that money on my own and would probably do better. I hope they don't do this.

 

[breakaway2000]

Although I doubt any of this passes, IF they increased FERS to 7.25% you'd be far better off opting out and investing the money on your own over the long haul. Unlike FERS, your investments will remain for your spouse/kids in the event of an untimely death.

 

[GMX]

Although I doubt any of this passes, IF they increased FERS to 7.25% you'd be far better off opting out and investing the money on your own over the long haul. Unlike FERS, your investments will remain for your spouse/kids in the event of an untimely death.

Right. But I don't think they would allow an opt-out, would they? We cannot opt-out now, so I don't see that as an option if they raise the contribution. They've been proposing this for off an on for quite a while it seems, so hopefully for all our sake it does't pass.

It IS a good reminder for people to continually and wisely invest in their TSP and/or other types of retirement funds. All the data shows that when one contributes regularly over enough time and into funds with a good track record of stability and growth, those individuals become wealthy. And yes as breakaway said, that money stays in your family/estate after death.

 

[AB19]

So this doesn't affect TSP? Also what contributions are made to FERS? I thought FERS was the whole work for 20 years get 1.7 percent every year after 1 percent. What part of FERS is this talking about with the 7.25%? Also what places got a COLA at the academy they tell us about places like fairbanks and nantucket that get cola on top of locality, but is cola a common occurrence for most other facilities?

 

[MJ]

So this doesn't affect TSP? Also what contributions are made to FERS? I thought FERS was the whole work for 20 years get 1.7 percent every year after 1 percent. What part of FERS is this talking about with the 7.25%? Also what places got a COLA at the academy they tell us about places like fairbanks and nantucket that get cola on top of locality, but is cola a common occurrence for most other facilities?

Start by reading the FERS page on OPM.gov. It’s info you should be aware of.

 

[DankVectorz]

So this doesn't affect TSP? Also what contributions are made to FERS? I thought FERS was the whole work for 20 years get 1.7 percent every year after 1 percent. What part of FERS is this talking about with the 7.25%? Also what places got a COLA at the academy they tell us about places like fairbanks and nantucket that get cola on top of locality, but is cola a common occurrence for most other facilities?

You have to contribute to your retirement...

COLA in this instance isn't talking about people working. It's cost of living "raises" to your retirement to keep up with inflation.

Now go call your parents and yell at them for not giving you a basic personal finance education

 

[AB19]

Start by reading the FERS page on OPM.gov. It’s info you should be aware of.

I don’t see anything about contributing yourself on the page. I only see the part about how much you earn for each year.

 

[AB19]

You have to contribute to your retirement...

COLA in this instance isn't talking about people working. It's cost of living "raises" to your retirement to keep up with inflation.

Now go call your parents and yell at them for not giving you a basic personal finance education

Obviously you have to contribute to your own retirement, but I thought that was TSP, not fers. I thought fers was the part about getting your three year high. Sorry the academy doesn’t teach shit about our benefits and doesn’t explain anything properly

 

[Ghost]

I don’t see anything about contributing yourself on the page. I only see the part about how much you earn for each year.

Maybe check out this page Benefits & Retirement

Under retirement it says: Important: Your contribution into FERS is dependent on when you were first hired. If you were first hired into the federal government after December 31, 2013, your retirement system is FERS-FRAE and your contribution is 4.4% (4.9% for Air Traffic Controllers) of your salary.

 

[AB19]

So they want to increase what we put in to 7.25%? Effectively making our retirement more expensive? If we put in 7.25% of our paycheck we still only get 39% of our 5 year high under the new proposed system?

 

[Move78]

So they want to increase what we put in to 7.25%? Effectively making our retirement more expensive? If we put in 7.25% of our paycheck we still only get 39% of our 5 year high under the new proposed system?

Yes it's an increase in payroll deductions and acts a pay cut while your working. And the high 5 will lower your received pension salary a little. So you make less now by paying more into it to get less out of it.

 

[AB19]

Yes it's an increase in payroll deductions and acts a pay cut while your working. And the high 5 will lower your received pension salary a little. So you make less now by paying more into it to get less out of it.

That's absolutely terrible lmao

 

[Move78]

That's absolutely terrible lmao

I wonder how many of our slowest brothers and sisters actually voted for this. I mean this shit couldn't be less surprising. Pay attention everyone.

 

[jakemorrill]

So they want to increase what we put in to 7.25%? Effectively making our retirement more expensive? If we put in 7.25% of our paycheck we still only get 39% of our 5 year high under the new proposed system?

That's absolutely terrible lmao

This what needs to be distributed to controllers. The most basic of break downs. None of that flowery language. No promises that it will all be the same. Simple numbers.

 

[AB19]

This what needs to be distributed to controllers. The most basic of break downs. None of that flowery language. No promises that it will all be the same. Simple numbers.”
Wolverhampton fan? Interesting