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I badly need some help here, because I do not know who to turn to. Today I found when I checked my online banking that my pension deposit has been greatly reduced.I have been getting this retirement penson for some years now. It has been reduced just about $1000. It is now barely anything at all, and just no explanation why. I received nothing in the mail about this matter. When I called OPM and waited on hold, no exaggeration 1 hour to talk to someone. That is in addiction to the busy signal and redialing over and over again. Then being cut off after being on hold for so long. This is what I found out if anything. The explanation was very vague and I'm not sure the clerk even knew.
The clerk thinks perhaps it is because I am receiving Social Security. Which in my case is not a whole lot. I explained I have already lost my FERS payment because I am getting SS for 1 1/2 years now. It was taken away immediately by upon my first SS payment. Leaving me with just the CSRA Portion of the Pension. Then SS because of the Windfall Protection ACT penalized me on my SS payment. So I have already been penalized by them for a reduced payment each month. The clerk gave no further explanation and was very inconsiderate. I am at a loss. All I could think of doing is notifying the congressman office, for my district and file and investigation. I am being sent papers to file this by his office. I was told it could be a number of months before he hears back from OPM. I am devastated. I am sure there is not enough left in this pension to pay the health insurance payments. That and the fact it is a tremendous loss of my income and at an age where I can't go out and work full time. I already work part time. I already am under the SS policy of only allowing limited employement until age 66. I'm 63.
I feel this must all be some kind of a mistake on the Part of OPM, since I have already been penalized as mentioned above. Does anyone have any info of what to do, and how to deal with this. I'm at a loss other than what I have done. Its not as easy as picking up a phone and calling OPM. THey make it impossible to reach them. The OPM recording mentions they have limited employees due to the furloughs. There is no office to go into locally to speak to someone. HELP.
Maybe I am missing something, but your post has me confused. Were you on FERS or CSRS? If you were on FERS, you draw your FERS pension and can also draw SS. If you were on CSRS, your pension will be reduced once you begin to draw SS. Of course, if you were on CSRS, you didn't pay into SS with your federal paycheck, but since you say you've drawn SS for 1 1/2 years, you must have had enough quarters in the private sector to qualify for SS. And...isn't your health insurance premium automatically deducted from your annuity?
Maybe I am missing something, but your post has me confused. Were you on FERS or CSRS? If you were on FERS, you draw your FERS pension and can also draw SS. If you were on CSRS, your pension will be reduced once you begin to draw SS. Of course, if you were on CSRS, you didn't pay into SS with your federal paycheck, but since you say you've drawn SS for 1 1/2 years, you must have had enough quarters in the private sector to qualify for SS. And...isn't your health insurance premium automatically deducted from your annuity?
I was on FERS and CSRS. I changed over FERS when we were allowed to do so. I forget what year that was. So yes I paid into both. I received both annuities until age 62 then the FERS immediately stopped, because I was of age to take SS payments. I understood that. I did work other jobs thru life on top of being a Federal Employee, so yes I paid into SS in those jobs for 46 years. So that is why I have SS in my life besides the Federal pension.
I just don't get this sudden loss of my Federal pension and I'm confused over it. So its understandable anyone else would be. It has to have been some kind of a mistake on their part. Pensions do not get reduced to this outrageous amount without notification. My health insurance is deducted or it has been. I just don't know what my monthly amount is now, since I don't know if this is a mistake. SO you can see its confusing and very unsettling right now.
Okay...I understand some of that now. It was 1984 when we were given a choice. I stayed with CSRS.
I confess that I don't know of anyone who switched from CSRS to FERS and has now retired with a situation such as yours. I was thinking you would have lost the CSRS payments but kept FERS + SS. But...it sounds like...if your FERS was dropped, then OPM would think you were only on CSRS, and since you are receiving SS, the CSRS would be reduced.
Do you have an account on line to log into OPM and look at the details of your annuity? If not, I would start there by creating an account so that you can look at the details of your annuity. Maybe there is some notice of what they are doing, although it seems strange to me that you have received no notification of changes.
Hopefully...someone knowledgable of this type situation (CSRS who switched to FERS and retired) can jump in and offer some help.
MadManofBethesda would probably know. You might want to DM him. He hasn't posted in about six weeks, so he could be on a trip. He travels a lot.
I read recently on this board of some type of temporary reduction, nothing of your magnitude, however, and am not sure if it applied to federal workers and may be conflating this with something else, entirely.
Awful shock. Hopefully, you'll be able to straighten this out.
It sounds like you might fall under the "CSRS Offset". Google it, and you will get a good overview on how it works; or go to the OPM website for a full overview.
Anytime there's a change in your monthly pension, you should receive a statement from OPM explaining the change. However, I think they recently stopped mailing out the paper copy, so you should check your "OPM- Services Online" account to see what's posted there.
Wow, what a disaster. To have this happen after a few years - hmmm. Something had to change. I have never heard of this happening. You say you work part time now - I wonder if that has something to do with it. So you applied for SS at 62 which would have been a year ago since you are 63 now. That would have reduced your CSRS pension at that time.
OPM just does not willy-nilly audit pay so something had to generate this happening. Try sending them an email or better yet do what other said and go on-line to view your pay annuity details. Also they should have sent you a notification of change to whatever they changed.
If I remember correctly once a person switched to FERS in 1983/84 they were no longer in CSRS so you would have not received a CSRS annuity since you opted into FERS.
There were some of us (me included) who were in an offset group. We were referred to as CSRS offset. I won't go into detail as to how that happened unless you really want to know. How it worked for me is up until I was 62 I received CSRS retirement. I retired at 55. Once I turned 62 I had to apply for Social security - did not have an option. They would have reduced my csrs if I didn't so why would I want less money. So, I receive the same annuity amount - in fact made a little more than just straight CSRS. I get 2 different deposits from my annuity; one comes from OPM and the other from Social Security.
I second the motion made upthread that the OP should send a direct message to Madmanofbethesda. He is probably on a cruise or something, so he may or may not receive the message right away, but I understand he is a federal retiree and I do not know any other poster in this Retirement Forum who has such an accurate command of the facts about federal retirement. In general, anything he posts is carefully researched and can be relied on.
I can't help you with your question but if you are having problems with OPM, write to your Congressman, ask for their help and attach documentation. It was the only way I got a two year problem with OPM resolved.
Thanks everyone for your replies, I appreciate them more than I can convey right now. I'm very upset this morning in a way I am not use to. In fact I am numb. I just got off the phone with OPM after a 45 minute wait on hold. This is what I was told. The clerk who seemed knowledgeable was not able to find the answer for me. She said she looked for every possible reason and found none. I was told she has contacted another OPM office, to send me a letter of explanation about this matter. She did research why it would have happened and found none in my case. Since my pension was already reduced by both OPM and my SS by the SS office in the past year. Now my pension as of this month has been reduced by just about $1000 permanently, which includes my payment towards my health ins. So at least I have my health insurance.
I'm pretty disgusted right now, as can be understood. To have received absolutely no notification about this in the mail or by email. They have my email. That is bad enough, but not to be able to receive a explanation even when you call, speaks volumes about their operation. It seems callous and unfeeling. I immediately must change everything in my life and moving is one of them. I actually have been spending much of this year in Arizona this year and had planned on retiring out here. That has all changed now since my pension is not a liveable pension by no means. To beat it all I had just bought a new car, to replace the 12 year old vehicle I had just last month. Can you believe this could happen to a person. I'll get thru it I just have to figure out what to do. I will go thru with the congressman investigation as I feel some type of mistake has happened somewhere. It just makes no sense and they can't explain the reason. That to me is a red warning flag about them. I wonder if this is going on with other people.
Thanks again for the replies. Again they really helped.
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