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Simplified retirement project an early success Date published: 4/13/2008
I'D LIKE TO update you The first is the new Retire EZ Program that the Office of Personnel Management recently rolled out. This is the culmination of several years of work OPM recently issued its initial report on the success of the first wave of the rollout. According to OPM's plan, the first wave involved about 26,000 federal employees serviced by the General Services Administration's payroll processing center. Retirees under the new system will now be able to manage their accounts electronically. Best of all, they no longer have to wait months getting only an interim reduced annuity payment until their annuity is calculated. They get their actual annuity when they get their first check. OPM has taken precautions to make sure the system is working properly by running the old system simultaneously and double-checking all the calculations. So far, no major problems have been found. Work is continuing on the system in preparation for adding more employees in Wave 2. Ultimately all retirees will benefit from this modernization. They will have far greater ability to access their information, manage their own accounts if they choose to do so, and have faster and easier access to OPM to get questions and problems answered. The second topic I wanted to cover is the Base Realignment and Closure program. Though there hasn't been a lot of talk in the news about it lately, it still is a very lively topic because it affects so many federal jobs and has the potential of changing traffic patterns. As the situation stands, approximately 15,000 jobs are slated to go to Maryland from the District of Columbia and Northern Virginia. From everything I've read, Maryland officials are pretty happy with that and even welcome the expansion in school and transportation requirements. Virginia is slated to get just over 19,000 jobs. If you remember when word of this move first came out, many communities, the Fredericksburg region included, wanted some of these jobs.
Recommend users keep up with information about Fort Belvoir's BRAC planning at our Belvoir New Vision (www.belvoirnewvision.com) website. Information found under "PUBLICATIONS" is especially useful.
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