National health reform bills would exempt Hawaii

Title: National health reform bills would exempt Hawaii
Article Snip: "...protecting the state's 35-year-old Prepaid Healthcare Act, which has led to one of the lowest uninsured rates in the country and low premiums for workers...."
Reference: www.starbulletin.com

18,000 sign up for Postal Service buyouts

Title: 18,000 sign up for Postal Service buyouts
Article Snip: "... Employees will receive the incentive in two payments: $10,000 by Dec. 31 and $5,000 beginning Oct. 1, 2010.
The Postal Service has made four previous rounds of early retirement offers..."
Reference: www.federaltimes.com

Retirement Tips For Seniors On Fixed Incomes

Title: Tips For Seniors On Fixed Incomes
Article Snip: "...Those who may or may not have lost some retirement savings in the faltering economy should consider the following tips for living on a fixed income. ..."
Reference: www.thevindicator.com
Retirement Tips

Special Extra Earnings for Military Service applied to Social Security

Title: Special Extra Earnings for Military Service applied to Social Security
Article Snip: "...Under certain circumstances, special extra earnings for your military service from 1957 through 2001 can be credited to your record for Social Security purposes. These extra earnings credits may help you qualify for Social Security or increase the amount of your Social Security benefit. Special extra earnings credits are granted for periods..."
Reference: www.ssa.gov
Retirement Tips

Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) Publications

Title: Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) Publications
OPM offers an array of free publications on the Federal Employees Retirement System. It pays to stay informed!
Reference: www.opm.gov
Publications

OPM Director, Federal Officials and Athletes to Launch Wellness Campaign for Federal Workers

Title: OPM Director, Federal Officials and Athletes to Launch Wellness Campaign for Federal Workers
Article Snip: "...U.S. Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry will promote the Feds Get Fit wellness awareness campaign for Federal employees with a noontime rally on the National Mall on Tuesday, October 27. ..."
Reference: www.opm.gov

$250 Economic Recovery Payment to the seniors, veterans and people with disabilities

Title: $250 Economic Recovery Payment to the seniors, veterans and people with disabilities
Article Snip: "...The benefit would be $250 – or equivalent to a 2 percent increase in benefits for the average Social Security retiree beneficiary. Under the rules no person could "double dip" and receive a $250 Economic Recovery Payment through more than one program. Nor could they receive both an Economic Recovery Payment and the Making Work Pay tax credit...."
Reference: www.whitehouse.gov

Federal Retirement Calculator

Title: Federal Retirement Calculator
Article Snip: "...You Can Use this Calculator to:

* Calculate the basic annuity for employees in the FERS, CSRS, or CSRS-offset retirement system, including credit for sick leave if applicable.
* Confirm retirement eligibility. The calculator lets you know whether you are eligible to retire on the date you want, and what sort of restrictions (if any) apply.
* Calculate survivor benefits. ..."
Reference: usgs.gov

Federal Employee Health Care Premiums to Rise Sharply

Title: What OPM isn’t doing to contain health rates
Article Snip: "...Office of Personnel Management announced last month that health care premiums for federal employees and retirees were jumping 7.4 percent on average..."
Reference: www.federaltimes.com

It's Official: No Social Security Increase

Title: It's Official: No Social Security Increase
Article Snip: "...Social Security Benefits Won't Increase, Spelling Trouble for Older Americans With High Health Care Costs..."
Reference: abcnews.go.com

Senate-House bill includes retirement equity for Hawaii federal workers

Title: Senate-House bill includes retirement equity for Hawaii federal workers
Article Snip: "...National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 (NDAA) released Wednesday contains Federal workforce provisions, including the Non-Foreign Area Retirement Equity Assurance Act (S. 507), which would provide fairness in retirement pay for the roughly 50,000 federal workers in Hawaii, Alaska, and the Territories. ..."
Reference: www.hawaii247.org

Special Extra Earnings for Military Service

Title: Special Extra Earnings for Military Service
Article Snip: "...Since 1957, if you had military service earnings for active duty (including active duty for training), you paid Social Security taxes on those earnings. Since 1988, inactive duty service in the Armed Forces reserves (such as weekend drills) has also been covered by Social Security.

Under certain circumstances, special extra earnings for your military service from 1957 through 2001 can be credited to your record for Social Security purposes. These extra earnings credits may help you qualify for Social Security or increase the amount of your Social Security benefit. ..."
Reference: www.ssa.gov

Job losses, early retirements hurt Social Security

Title: Job losses, early retirements hurt Social Security
Article Snip: "...Applications for retirement benefits are 23 percent higher than last year, while disability claims have risen by about 20 percent. Social Security officials had expected applications to increase from the growing number of baby boomers reaching retirement, but they didn't expect the increase to be so large...."
Reference: www.federalnewsradio.com

Tax-Friendly Places for Retirement

Title: Tax-Friendly Places for Retirement
Article Snip: "...ten states -- Alabama, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New York and Pennsylvania -- exclude all federal, military and in-state government pensions from taxation. But Kansas taxes public pensions from all other states...."
Reference: www.washingtonpost.com

Social Security benefit checks could go down in 2010

Title: Social Security benefit checks could go down in 2010
Article Snip: "...the Congressional Budget Office estimates that there will be no COLA increase for 2010 -- the first time without an increa..."
Reference: www.walletpop.com

Federal Employee Retirement Information and Services

Title: Federal Employee Retirement Information and Services
Article Snip: Get all the information you need on your Federal Retirement from OPM to include planning, pre-retirement, online tools, FERS, CSRS, disability, insurance, and annuity information.
Reference: www.opm.gov

Eye Opener: Obama Caps Pay Raises at 2 Percent

Title: Eye Opener: Obama Caps Pay Raises at 2 Percent
Article Snip: "...President Obama has decided to reduce pay increases for civilian federal workers from 2.4 percent to 2 percent..."
Reference: washingtonpost.com

FERS flu strikes; workers burn leave

Title: FERS flu strikes; workers burn leave
Article Snip: "...Giving FERS employees an incentive to save sick leave would, backers say, be both fair and smart. They say Congress did it years ago for CSRS employees to keep them from burning up sick leave and that it would mean immediate savings in productivity. ..."
Reference: washingtontimes.com/

The FERS Special Retirement Supplement (and Special Category Employees)

Title: The FERS Special Retirement Supplement (and Special Category Employees)
Article Snip: "...Here is how the SRS is computed for a retiree whose MRA is age 56 and who retires under FERS with 30 years of civilian service and an estimated age 62 Social Security benefit of $1200 a month. ..."
Reference: www.fedsmith.com

Best Dates to Retire: Follow-Up

Title: Best Dates to Retire: Follow-Up
Article Snip: "...the best date would be Dec. 31, 2009, for those under the Federal Employees Retirement System and Jan. 1, 2010, for those under the Civil Service Retirement System...."
Reference: www.govexec.com