Delayed retirement payments for federal employees
Jun. 26—It's been nearly six months since Brian Hart retired from the Bureau of Prisons following a 28-year career and the former U.S. Penitentiary at Allenwood employee is still not receiving full retirement pay.
"I am getting partial checks and there's no timeline when I will get my full pay," said Hart, who has relied on money he saved and his federal tax return for financial support since his retirement.
While according to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) website, the office which manages federal retirement benefits "strives to complete retirement claims within 60 days," in recent years it has taken up to six months for federal employees to get full retirement paychecks.
Hart, and several others who spoke with The Daily Item, said the delays have worsened and many federal employees aren't collecting full pensions for up to a year.
U.S. Rep. Fred Keller sent a letter to OPM Director Kiran Ahuja on April 8 expressing concern about the "rising numbers of unprocessed retirement claims for federal employees" and encouraging the office to reduce the lag time in unpaid full pension payouts, said Jon Anzur, Keller's chief of staff.
The OPM receives more than 100,000 federal retirement applications annually and, according to a 2019 U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, did not meet its goal of processing most claims within 60 days between 2014 and 2017.
GAO found the reasons for the delay at the time was OPM's reliance on paper applications and manual processing, insufficient staffing and incomplete applications. The COVID-19 pandemic apparently exacerbated the problem.
The federal backlog of retirement claims hit a recent high in January of 31,307 and continued to climb in each of the following two months, reaching 36,603 in March.
"There's no excuse for people having to wait eight months for their money," said Molly Bittenbender, who retired from the U.S. Penitentiary at Allenwood last October after 29 years. "I'm more fortunate because my husband still works, but there are people pulling money out of their 401Ks or getting another job to make ends meet."
Former U.S. Penitentiary at Lewisburg corrections officer Andy Kline said he notified his employer one year before his December 2021 retirement of his decision to leave but as of late June is still not receiving full pay.
"It's never been this bad," said Kline, who served the last several years of his 25-year career as president of the Local 481.
He still represents the union members as vice president of Local 481 and said he's speaking out to help them and other federal employees collect their full due.
About 30 percent of the BOP staff are military veterans, said Kline, who adds it's an insult to all federal employees who worked for years and through the pandemic "who were never told they probably wouldn't be paid for up to a year when they retire."
Anzur said the OPM acknowledged receipt of Keller's letter and is "preparing a response" to his inquiries about what is causing the continued delays in processing pension claims, how the office is responding to it and what staffing levels are needed to address the problem.
"It's a slap in the face to all government employees. The system is broken," said Darrell Palmer who is still waiting for full pension checks after retiring at the end of December from U.S. Penitentiary at Canaan where he served as a corrections officer for 31 years and nine months.
"Throughout my career, I was held to a high standard," said Kline of his requirement to pay all debts or risk losing his job while employed with the BOP. "There shouldn't be a double standard. People shouldn't be forced to bag groceries after working a career in law enforcement."
