Q. With all of the financial instability in the Postal Service right now, I am concerned that I will be able to draw retirement under FERS. I have 13 years with the USPS now and do not foresee being able to get a full 20 years, so I will be taking a short retirement. If the USPS goes bankrupt or is bought in a privatization move, what happens to the money I have been putting into FERS for retirement? Would the FERS retirement money still be there should the USPS become insolvent or privatized?
My father worked for Kaiser Aluminum Corp. for 35 years. He retired and, eight years later, Kaiser went bankrupt and he lost his pension. Do you have any insight on this issue?
A. Your retirement contributions are safe. They aren’t in the hands of the U.S. Postal Service. Instead, they are in the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund, which is maintained by the Department of the Treasury.
3 Comments
You’ll find the latest information on the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund balance at http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL30023.pdf. To the best of my knowledge, there hasn’t been in recent borrowing from the Fund.
Is the Civil Service retirement funds still being used to supplement the Federal Government operating expenses?
Not to the best of my knowledge.