Postal Service to Skip Retirement Payments

The USPS has been asking Congress to change to health benefits prefunding rules, and it also has asked for access to $50 billion to $75 billion in what it says are overpayments made to the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and what it says are $6.9 billion in overpayments to the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS).

Rep. Dan Issa, R-Calif., says the state of the USPS pension system would not be tolerated if the USPS were a private company.

“Our nation’s second largest employer, is now past the brink of insolvency,” Issa says. “Incredibly, the unprecedented action to suspend these [FERS] payments will only offer USPS an additional $800 million through the end of the year in liquidity, not even 10% of their projected deficit of $8.3 billion. USPS needs fundamental structural and financial reforms to cut costs and protect taxpayers from an expensive bailout.”

Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., put out a statement calling the USPS FERS contribution suspension announcement a “canary in the coal mine moment.” He noted that he has introduced a proposal, the POST Act bill, for overhauling the agency’s finances.

If Congress does not act quickly to fix the problems of the USPS, the postal service “as we know it will cease to exist in the very near future,” Carper says. “Possibly by the end of this fiscal year.”

Other postal service coverage from National Underwriter Life & Health:

• Issa Schedules Postal Service Compensation Hearing
• Inspectors General Wrestle Over Postal Service Trust Funds
• ACLI, AHIP See Sun Rise In Japan
• OPM To Offer Partner Benefits
• Top Federal HR Exec Proposes Voluntary STD Program