[TSPStrategy] Federal workers will pay 7.7% more towards health insurance premiums in 2024

https://www.govexec.com/pay-benefits/2023/09/federal-workers-will-pay-77-more-towards-health-insurance-premiums-2024/390682/

Federal workers will pay 7.7% more towards health insurance premiums in 2024

Next year, the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program will feature new coverage of anti-obesity medication, as well as expanded access to mental health, assistive reproductive technology and gender-affirming care.

SEPTEMBER 27, 2023

• BENEFITS
• OPEN SEASON
• OPM

ERICH WAGNER

Federal employees and retirees will pay an average of 7.7% more on their health care premiums in 2024, a slight decrease from last year's biggest price hike in a decade.

The government's share of Federal Employees Health Benefits Program premiums will increase by an average of 5%, bringing the overall increase to 5.8%, according to the Office of Personnel Management. In 2023, feds were estimated to pay an average of 8.7% more on premiums than the previous year, and the overall average premium increase of 7.2% was the highest for the nation's largest health insurance program since 2011.

On average, federal workers enrolled in "self-only" plans will pay an additional $8.05 per biweekly pay period, while feds in "self plus one" insurance plans will pay $16.73 more next year. Federal employees enrolled in family coverage will pay an average of $21.16 per pay period in 2024.

Under the Federal Employees Dental and Vision Insurance Program, the average premium for dental plans will increase by 1.4%, while premiums for vision coverage will increase by an average of 1.1%.

The FEHBP's annual open season, in which federal employees can choose from a variety of national and regional insurance carriers and coverage plans, will run from Nov. 13 to Dec. 11. More federal workers will be required to select a new plan than usual this year, as the overall number of options will reduce from 271 plan choices to 159. That's because Humana is withdrawing both from the FEHBP and from employer-sponsored insurance as a whole over the next two years.

Beginning next year, OPM has secured additional benefits for FEHBP enrollees in the form of "comprehensive" coverage of FDA-approved anti-obesity medication and improved access to mental health and substance abuse disorder services, including telehealth, at low or no cost sharing. Additionally, the program will provide stronger coverage of treatments related to assisted reproductive technology like artificial insemination, as well as gender-affirming care for transgender and other gender diverse enrollees.

And insurers will expand coverage of prenatal and postpartum care, including childbirth education classes, group prenatal care, as well as home-based health care services both during pregnancies and postpartum.

Additionally, OPM announced that it is expanding eligibility for Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts to active-duty members of the military and active guard reserve members and their 400,000 dependent family members.

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[TSPStrategy] Best Dates to Retire 2024 Looking forward to moving on next year? Here’s a calendar showing optimal dates.

https://www.govexec.com/pay-benefits/2023/09/best-dates-retire-2024/390502/

Best Dates to Retire 2024

Looking forward to moving on next year? Here's a calendar showing optimal dates.

SEPTEMBER 21, 2023 03:00 PM ET

• RETIREMENT PLANNING

TAMMY FLANAGAN

Retirement Counseling and Training www.retirefederal.com

Download the Best Dates to Retire 2024 Calendar

If you're planning to retire next year, it's not too early to start thinking about the best date to move on to optimize your retirement benefit and payout for unused annual leave. Let's look at why some dates are better than others, and then you can download a calendar showing the best dates. 

Under the Civil Service Retirement System, CSRS Offset and the Federal Employees Retirement System, annuities commence the first day of the month after you separate from service and meet age and service requirements. So you really can't go wrong with the last day of the month.

The end of each month is seldom at the end of the week, or the end of a leave period for that matter, but regardless of which day of the week the last day of the month falls on, you will get credit for each day through close of business of the day you make your retirement effective (even if it's a holiday).

Voluntary retirement annuities start the first day of the month after an employee separates from service and meets the age and service requirements. But the annuities of CSRS and CSRS Offset employees who stay in their jobs for three days or fewer in the month they retire start on the day after separation or the day after pay ceases. If the first and second day of the month are weekend days or other days that would not result in a salary payment, then retiring on the third day of the month will reduce the employee's retirement benefit by 3/30 of the first payment, while only increasing the last paycheck by one day of salary payment. In this case, it might be more advantageous to retire on the last day of the month, rather than the third day of the following month.

If the third day of the month falls on a Wednesday, Thursday or Friday, this can be a great day for CSRS or CSRS Offset employees to retire. If Friday is also the end of a two-week leave period, it's even better.

The best dates calendar also shows the year's leave periods. Under both CSRS and FERS, completing 80 hours (or your scheduled tour of duty) of work by the end of a two-week leave period will allow you to be paid your full salary for your final two weeks at work and earn your final accrual for annual and sick leave.

Retiring before completing your work for your final leave period will result in no leave accrual. Leave is not prorated if you work fewer than the number of hours in your tour of duty. May 31, June 29 and Nov. 30 are dates at or near the end of the month in 2024 which are also the end of a two-week leave period. 

Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024 would be a good date for FERS employees to retire if they are trying to maximize their lump sum annual leave payment. They would have 25 accruals for 2024 plus carryover hours from 2023. If they waited until Jan. 11, 2025, they would earn an additional leave accrual plus eight more days of salary. But they'd forfeit their January retirement benefit. 

Got it? Download the calendar for a visual representation of the best dates.

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[TSPStrategy] White House warns of shutdown’s impact on feds as GOP struggles to find a clear path forward on spending

https://www.govexec.com/management/2023/09/white-house-warns-shutdowns-impact-feds-gop-struggles-find-clear-path-forward-spending/390472/

White House warns of shutdown's impact on feds as GOP struggles to find a clear path forward on spending

The House and Senate are both floundering on their efforts to pass funding bills past Sept. 30.

SEPTEMBER 20, 2023

• SHUTDOWN
• BUDGET

ERIC KATZ

Senior Correspondent

House Republicans are struggling to advance any measure that would keep the government open past Sept. 30, spurring the White House to issue a warning about the dire consequences for federal agencies and their employees in the event of a shutdown. 

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was forced to pull a vote on a one-month continuing resolution that would have cut spending at most non-defense agencies by 8% after conservative members vowed to oppose the measure. He and other members involved in negotiations on Wednesday failed to outline any plan to avoid a shutdown. Republicans on Tuesday were also unable to advance their fiscal 2024 appropriations measure for the Defense Department after five conservatives joined Democrats in sinking the bill. 

McCarthy said Wednesday he remained optimistic, but was unable to say what he would do next. 

"Every major piece of legislation falls apart," McCarthy said. "It goes up, it comes down, but the ones that don't pass are when people quit." 

Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., one of McCarthy's top allies, said his Republican colleagues had two options: to pass a stopgap funding bill that includes spending cuts and border security measures that Democrats oppose, or surrender their leverage and accept a bipartisan, "clean" CR from the Senate. 

"I think every day we get closer to a shutdown, I think the more leverage you're giving to [President] Joe Biden, the more leverage you're giving to [Senate Majority Leader Chuck] Schumer[, D-N.Y.,] and ultimately we get a clean CR, meaning existing funding levels, and you will get no conservative wins." 

Graves suggested he and leadership would "go to the mat" for a more conservative CR if the House passed it and the Senate stripped out the partisan elements, but would not take the same approach if the Senate were forced to act first. 

The Senate on Wednesday failed to advance a three-bill package for full-year appropriations at the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Transportation and Housing and Urban Development, despite all three winning unanimous approval at the committee level earlier this year. Senate Democrats were looking to work around an objection from Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., but Republicans declined to add their support despite the majority of the caucus supporting the underlying bills. Johnson was aiming to include an amendment on the "minibus" package that would institute automatic CRs whenever appropriations would otherwise lapse. 

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said on Wednesday leadership had agreed to an amendment vote on Johnson's bill. She noted, however, there were a few other outstanding issues to resolve before all Republicans would allow the process to move forward unanimously. 

Collins added the Senate could instead use the underlying minibus package as a vehicle for the upper chamber to pass its own CR and send it to the House. She said she prefers the House to pass its own stopgap spending bill so the Senate can amend it and send it back to the lower chamber, but the Senate may be forced to pass something on its own. All spending bills must originate from the House, limiting the Senate's ability to act first on a stopgap bill.  

"It is possible," Collins said. 

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who chairs the appropriations committee, said on Wednesday she was working on a "bipartisan course" for CR that would include Biden's request for emergency funding for Ukraine aid, disaster relief, border security and federal firefighter pay. 

"I will stay at the table and I will keep working," Murray said. 

In an unusual move, McCarthy said he would hold lawmakers in Washington for potential votes Friday and Saturday.

'Damaging consequences'

The White House on Wednesday cautioned the House's CR proposal—which the chamber has so far been unable to pass—represented a "shutdown bill that doubles down on extreme, partisan proposals that can't pass the Senate and will never become law." 

The House Republican plan, or lack thereof, is charting a course for a shutdown that would have "damaging consequences across the country." Active duty military personnel and federal law enforcement—like all federal employees—would face delayed paychecks. 

The Food and Drug Administration would have to furlough employees who conduct food safety inspections, the White House added, while Environmental Protection Agency staff would have to pause oversight efforts related to clean air and water. It noted that air traffic controllers at the Federal Aviation Administration and Transportation Security Administration screeners would be forced to work without, which in the past has led to employee shortages and caused flight disruptions. Long-term rebuilding projects at the Federal Emergency Management Agency would remain halted, the White House said, while the Disaster Relief Fund that targets acute crises would face risk of depletion.

The White House, through its Office of Management and Budget, maintains some latitude in the exact consequences of a shutdown. Federal employees funded through mechanisms other than annual appropriations, as well as those necessary to protect life and property, are considered either "exempted" or "excepted" and work throughout shutdowns on only the promise of backpay. The rest of employees are sent home on furlough without pay, though, following the record-setting 35-day shutdown in 2018 and 2019, those workers are now also guaranteed backpay. Different administrations have taken varying approaches in determining who gets furloughed and who works, with the Trump administration taking an unusually aggressive approach to keeping staff at work. 

Accusing its predecessors of "weaponizing" shutdowns, Trump's OMB instructed agencies to identify "carry-forward funding" and "transfer authority" to minimize the impact of shutdowns. That led to several agencies that in prior appropriations lapses sent home the vast majority of its workforce instead furloughing very few employees, though in some cases agencies were forced to increase the number of employees it furloughed as the shutdown dragged on. 

Other agencies, meanwhile, began calling employees back to the office as the lengthy shutdown caused more scenarios to crop up that the administration deemed as exempted work. 

The Biden administration may have its hands tied in how it carries out a shutdown this year. The Government Accountability Office, which enforces the Anti-Deficiency Act, the law that governs federal spending during shutdowns, ultimately found the Trump administration acted unlawfully during the 2018-2019 funding lapse. GAO said the Interior Department violated the law when it used recreation fees collected by the National Park Service to keep parks open and continue services such as trash collection and restroom maintenance. It also faulted the Agriculture Department for disbursing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits early during the shutdown.

The Trump administration's decisions tore "at the very fabric of Congress's constitutional power of the purse," said GAO, which threatened fines and imprisonment for officials who acted similarly in the future. 

OMB declined to comment on the record on the approach the Biden administration would take this year. It has instructed agencies across government to update their shutdown contingency plans, though many have not yet publicly posted them. As is standard practice, OMB will convene a call with agency leaders to go over their shutdown plans one week prior to a funding lapse if Congress has still not taken action.

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[TSPStrategy] Your guide to pay and benefits during a shutdown

https://www.govexec.com/pay-benefits/2023/09/your-guide-pay-and-benefits-during-shutdown/390423/

Your guide to pay and benefits during a shutdown

Congress is on a collision course with yet another lapse of appropriations, as House Speaker Kevin McCarthy struggles to corral the Republican caucus.

SEPTEMBER 19, 2023

• SHUTDOWN
• BENEFITS
• CONGRESS

ERICH WAGNER

As of Tuesday, lawmakers and the White House had just 11 days to reach an agreement and pass a short-term measure to fund the government and avert a shutdown beginning next weekend.

House Republicans' latest plan—to pass a one-month continuing resolution that keeps the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments funded at fiscal 2022 levels and cuts all other discretionary spending by 8%—fell apart Tuesday afternoon as House Speaker Kevin McCarthy reportedly postponed a vote to begin consideration of the measure because it failed to mollify conservatives in his caucus. The measure was likely to be considered dead on arrival in the Senate, where lawmakers in both parties have advanced spending measures abiding by last spring's debt ceiling deal on a bipartisan basis.

Here's what federal employes can expect in terms of pay and benefits if the government shutters, based on guidance from the Office of Personnel Management, last updated in 2021 after a number of updates were signed into law following the 35-day partial government shutdown that began in late 2018.

Salaries: Furloughed federal workers and employees who have been deemed essential and forced to work during a lapse in appropriations will not be paid during a shutdown. However, thanks to a 2019 law signed as part of the measure to fund the government at the end of the 35-day shutdown, they all will automatically be granted back pay to cover the shutdown once funding is restored. In previous appropriations lapses, Congress had to approve back pay for furloughed federal workers following each shutdown, but that process has since been automated.

Similarly, employees who worked overtime during the shutdown will be granted premium pay, although not until after the government has reopened.

Bonuses: Agencies may award performance bonuses during a shutdown, but those awards won't be paid until after funding is restored.

Unemployment: Federal employees who are furloughed are eligible for unemployment compensation in some states. But in many cases, they must return the money once they receive back pay.

Health care: Furloughed federal workers will maintain their coverage under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program during a lapse in appropriations. Premiums accrue over the course of a shutdown, and then are taken out of employees' first paycheck after the government reopens.

And employees enrolled int eh Federal Employees Dental and Vision Insurance Program will also maintain their coverage, with unpaid premiums being withheld from their first post-lapse paycheck. In previous shutdowns, if the lapse persisted for longer than two pay periods, insurance carriers could allow those employees' policies to lapse.

Additionally, federal employees can now make changes to their insurance plans due to significant life events during a shutdown. OPM regulations issued in 2020 clarified that agency HR employees, previously furloughed during lapses in appropriations, are deemed essential for the purposes of handling FEHBP enrollments.

Retirement benefits: Federal retirees in the Civil Service Retirement System and Federal Employees Retirement System will still receive their scheduled annuity payments during a shutdown. Contributions to the Thrift Savings Plan will be paused until the government reopens, though the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, which administers the TSP, will remain open since their budget comes from employee contributions, not congressional appropriations.

Leave: Federal workers cannot substitute paid leave for unpaid furloughs when the government is closed. Previously scheduled leave that occurs during a lapse in appropriations will be cancelled, although OPM has stressed that does not mean excepted employees cannot request time off during a lapse in appropriations.

Instead, agencies can excuse excepted employees from duty and place them in furlough status for the time they are out. And an excepted employee who had been scheduled to be on paid leave may be off duty for those periods.

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[TSPStrategy] A Question of Survival Two questions, actually, from readers about survivor benefits.

https://www.govexec.com/pay-benefits/2023/09/question-survival/390294/

A Question of Survival

Two questions, actually, from readers about survivor benefits. 

SEPTEMBER 14, 2023 02:03 PM ET

• RETIREMENT PLANNING

TAMMY FLANAGAN

Retirement Counseling and Training www.retirefederal.com

Survivor benefits can be a confusing issue for federal employees, not to mention one that many don't like to spend too much time contemplating. Here are a couple of recent questions I've received about survivor benefits, and my responses.

FERS Survivor Benefit

My husband and I are both federal employees and are planning to retire in the next year or two. Since we both have had lengthy federal careers (30-plus years each!) and our salaries are similar, we feel that we don't need to elect a survivor benefit for each other. Is there anything we should consider?

Congratulations on your long career in federal service and best wishes on your upcoming retirement! In your case, under the Federal Employees Retirement System, you will each be entitled to maintain health insurance, but you should consider the option of providing a survivor annuity for each other anyway. That way, you can be sure that each spouse will have adequate income no matter what happens. Consider the following examples:

No Survivor Benefit: In this case, either spouse would receive the following: an unreduced FERS benefit, a Social Security retirement benefit, and the balance in their Thrift Savings Plan account. The surviving spouse would get a federal retirement benefit (only their own), Social Security (the higher of the two benefits), the balance of both TSP accounts and life insurance proceeds, if applicable.

Maximum Survivor Benefit: Either spouse would receive a reduced FERS benefit (to provide for a spousal annuity), a Social Security retirement benefit and their TSP balance. The surviving spouse would receive a FERS unreduced retirement (since they no longer need to provide a survivor annuity), half of the late spouse's unreduced retirement, Social Security retirement (the higher of the two benefits), the balance of both TSP accounts and life insurance proceeds, if applicable.

So you should ask yourself:

• Can I live on my own FERS retirement and the higher of our two Social Security benefits when we had twice as much lifetime income before?
• What if we live beyond our life expectancy and spend our retirement savings? Will the remaining income be enough to cover our day-to-day expenses?
• Have we planned for the possible need for long-term care?
• Have we considered our differences in age, income, and spending and saving habits?
• What about life insurance? Most term insurance, such as that provided under the Federal Employees Group Life Insurance program, is reduced in retirement or is very expensive to continue. Whole life insurance is permanent, but is very expensive—possibly more than providing a survivor benefit.

Try putting numbers to the two examples above to see if it makes sense financially to waive the survivor benefit election.

Social Security Survivor Benefit

I am eight years older than my wife. My Social Security retirement benefit will be substantially larger than hers. I am holding off on filing for my Social Security retirement benefit until I am 70 years of age. When I pass, will my wife receive my Social Security benefit that I received at 70 or what I would have received at full retirement age (66 years, seven months)?

As long as she is at her full retirement age (67 if she was born in 1960 or later) for Social Security, she will be entitled to the amount you were receiving at the time of your death. 

Another issue that may affect your wife's Social Security widow's benefit amount is whether she is entitled to her own earned retirement benefit and, if so, what age she was when she began receiving her own Social Security. 

If she is already receiving benefits as a spouse, her benefit will automatically convert to a survivor's benefit after Social Security receives a report of death. If she is also eligible for retirement benefits, but hasn't applied yet, she has the option to apply for retirement or survivors benefits and switch to the other (higher) benefit later. 

If she is already receiving retirement benefits, then she can only apply for benefits as a surviving spouse if the retirement benefit that she receives is less than the benefits she would receive as a survivor.

If she becomes entitled to retirement benefits less than a year after filing for her own retirement benefits, then she might be able to withdraw her retirement application and apply for survivor benefits only. This Social Security Administration booklet explains some of your rights and responsibilities when you receive retirement or survivor's benefits. Another one explains survivor's benefits in more detail. And here's one on four tips for widows.

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