FEDweek

What your eOPF will not contain are your personal documents such as your marriage certificate or your divorce decree. Image: fotoscool/Shutterstock.com During the month of October, every federal employee needs to make a self-check decision about their Federal Employee Health Benefits (FEHB) and their whether they plan to retire under the Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS). Federal Employee Health Benefits (FEHB) Open season for the FEHB begins on November 9 and ends on December 14.

Image: PeopleImages/Shutterstock.com The rapid growth of artificial intelligence capabilities has “sparked an unprecedented surge in sophisticated scams that seniors are highly susceptible to,” says a report from the Senate Aging Committee. “AI-generated scams, including deepfakes and voice cloning, are far more convincing and effective than traditional scams when used to target and victimize seniors.

At issue was language in the department’s current budget law specifying it may not “reprogram” any funds for reorganization unless it notifies appropriations committees. Image: Mark Van Scyoc/Shutterstock.com A federal judge has blocked the reorganization of the Agriculture Department as contrary to restrictions Congress set in a spending bill.

The FLRA will put a hold on processing disputes while they are before the FMCS. Image: Andrii Yalanskyi/Shutterstock.com The FLRA once again has outsourced from itself to the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service a channel for alternative dispute resolution of disputes over the negotiability of contract proposals.

Since the January 2023 increase of 8.7/7.7 percent—the highest in four decades—the prior COLAs were 3.2, 2.5 and 2.8 percent under CSRS, and 2.2, 2 and 2 percent under FERS.

Plans will continue to cover at least one GLP-1 anti-obesity medication and at least two oral anti-obesity medications.

The primary impact of the bill would be to override the presidential memo that largely ended offsite work arrangements, but will face opposition from the WH and Republican leaders.

The average overall processing time in September was 66 days, with an average of 56 days for digital applications and an average of 149 day for those on paper. Image: Tada Images / Shutterstock.com OPM reduced a backlog of retirement applications over the fiscal year just concluded, with overall average processing time also declining, largely due the shift over that time from paper-based to digital applications.

Reaching your MRA opens the door to two different paths, and only one of them pays out unreduced right away. Image: KieferPix/Shutterstock.com Your FERS Minimum Retirement Age, or MRA, isn’t one number for everyone. It depends on the year you were born, and for a lot of federal employees, it lands on a specific month, not just a birthday. MRA ranges from 55 to 57. Born before 1948, it’s 55. Born in 1964 or later, it’s 57.

One reform would be keeping benefits the same but investing the fund in a “diversified portfolio” including stocks rather than only in Treasury issues. Image: DCStockPhotography/Shutterstock.com An inspector general report has assessed options for addressing the Postal Service’s retirement funding shortfall–which it says “has driven up retirement-related expenses and contributed to billions in annual deficits”–involving increasing income to the fund or slowing the outgo.