Belgie24~~OT~OT,, I have both the CSRS & FERS programs on disk. If you are interested in finding the way it really is I'll be happy to email them to you. In the plan you will see medical coverage is not funded and if an employee did not have a plan for 5 yrs prior to retirement will not be able to get one. Also, the FEDs I know pay a portion of their medical coverage while employed and have for many years. There are many other statements that can have holes shot in them. The AVERAGE FED in a large city may have a problem fully funding FERS. Their pay rates are not up to private industry. The new contract with UPS will have 5 year employees earning $60K + overtime. The USPS employee with 20 years will be making about $46K with overtime often being next to non-existant.
A few years after FERS was implemented CSRS employees were able to put up to 5% of their base into the bond fund only. Some time later they were able to get into the other funds. Recently, this non-matched deduction has been raised 1% per year and will be 8% in '03. This is tax deferred.
There is a formula and it can even be higher than 55% - 60% depending on age and years service. It is not based on <<"provides 55-60% of your ending salary..">> but on the high 3 year AVERAGE of BASE salary. OK-- no SS and 60% of $46K is $27.6 minus medical & life insurance, taxes, == not very generous considering there are no nice size contract increases but only small COL adjustments that do not cover the rise in medical premiums each year.
Some states (PA) do not tax CSRS pensions while others (OH) do.
