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Postal
Retirement Information |
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Information on this page is provided by Roseanne Jefferson.
Roseanne is a retired USPS employee with an extensive background in USPS
retirement, disability retirement, OWCP, EEO, Labor Relations and HR.
She conducts individual and group counseling and is able to
comprehensively discuss the pros and cons of employees who are on OWCP,
disability retirement and regular retirement. Roseanne will be happy
to answer your postal retirement questions. Contact Roseanne at
roseanne.jefferson@yahoo.com. |
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Postal
Retirement Q&A December 2010 Part One
Good Day
Postal Employees: Dec 2010
My Christmas Gift to you: How to take Inventory of Your eOPF
November 2010 has produced many questions from all of you out there
at PostalMag.com. I have answered each one and hopefully most have
taken the advice and benefited. My column is pretty much geared to
assisting employees in the process of retiring - because, "it just ain't like it used to be". No matter how much retiring on the phone
is so distasteful to all of us, I just don't seeing it going
anywhere. It's difficult to try to process the whole retirement
concept when you are unfamiliar like most are. Like my first concern
would be, as should yours be, is...how much am I taking home per
month? Because that right there...right there...is the breaker for you
on whether you going to retire or not. Believe me, I know, I've been
there and have worked with hundreds of employees getting there; sun
setting their postal careers with some type character, and a good
feeling knowing a face to face discussion should produce some pride
for "job well done". I know, I was HER, I was the one you went to
when you wanted to retire...SORRY...THAT'S GONE, AND IT WON'T COME
BACK. WHY?..PROFITABLE? UNPROFITABLE? REGARDLESS, IT'S STAYING. I
CAN SHOW YOU WHY, BUT THAT IS NOT WHAT THIS COLUMN IS ABOUT.
I would like to share one of my favorite stories about a Christmas
retirement. He was an EAS Postmaster retiring after 35 years. His
spouse, she too was postal. They had their ups and down's in the PO
as does everyone. They were excited he was retiring; although she
had a few more years to go, as she was just a bit younger. They
began on the same day, in the same orientation class, you know back
in the day when it really meant something to be in orientation. So
when I finished the session, and he was beginning to sign his
paperwork, his wife stopped him. She opened up her purse and right
there gave him a gift. As he opened it, they both smiled, as it was
a pen, engraved with the day and time when he signed his retirement
papers. As you see back then...when it meant something. (from the
Roseanne Chronicles)
A client informed me this week, they were on the phone with HRSSC.
Several retirement questions were discussed, but was then stopped
and informed "your seven minutes is up, I cannot answer anymore
questions, and you will have to call back". Now of course to make
this claim, for my protection, I obviously made sure that the client
called the local services staff @the district office to tell them
the same thing so it's on record, with an "H-Ticket number". This is
your only source of record; you may never get the same person on the
phone twice on any situation EVER. THIS IS A VALUABLE PIECE OF
ADVICE....AN H TICKET NUMBER !!
How do I know so much, THEY HIRED ME AND MY DISTRICT WOULDN'T
RELEASE ME. But I had to learn their ever changing systems. From my
perspective, you have no idea the impact of just getting all of your
OPF's into that eOPF system. Papers had to be counted (each opf),
chain of custody...all that good, for the employee. For me it was
brutal, but I was one of the dedicated employees who could have just bs'd it through, but I didn't.
Your Christmas Gift: So valuable!!! TAKE A WALK DOWN MEMORY LANE -
Go into your eOPF on postalease, for Christmas and go back and read
about yourself. There is a lot of your personal history in your OPF.
Letters of recommendation, or when you worked on a project that you
may have have forgot about. While you are there, make sure every
page is about you. Understand that just because you don't have a
hard copy file any longer of your OPF, you still need to make sure
all that in the eOPF is you. Mistakes have been made, and I have
corrected them, but only if I knew. Sometimes there is old
discipline, that everyone thought was out, and wasn't. Have fun
looking at all you have done. |
Postal
Retirement Q&A December 2010 Part Two
12/072010
Hi Just a last minute reminder...if you need dental of vision care
for this year...you only have
6 Days Remaining
Federal Benefits Open Season ends Monday, December 13th.
The Open Season Checklist
http://www.opm.gov/insure/openseason/checklist.pdf is a handy
guide to actions you need to take this open season to insure you
have the FEHB, FEDVIP and FSAFEDS benefits you want.
You must use BENEFEDS to enroll or change enrollment in a FEDVIP
plan. BENEFEDS is a secure enrollment website (www.BENEFEDS.com)
sponsored by OPM. If you do not have access to a computer, call
1-877-888-FEDS (1-877-888-3337), TTY number 1-877-889-5680 to enroll
or change your enrollment.
You must use the FSAFEDS site to enroll in FSAFEDS.
https://www.fsafeds.com/fsafeds/warning.asp Please contact an
FSAFEDS Benefits Counselor at 1-877-FSAFEDS (372-3337), (TTY:
1-800-952-0450), Monday through Friday, 9:00 A.M. until 9:00 P.M.,
Eastern Time for additional information.
You can get all the details at the Opens Season web page
http://www.opm.gov/insure/openseason/index.asp
As a retiree, I found this to be a great value...just do the
research on the state you live and the plans available to you...it
is VERY AFFORDABLE.
Till we talk again Merry Christmas and & Happy New Year...Roseanne |
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