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TSP and Government Pensions
Records on two million former
Civil Service workers are not automated, but rather stored in some 35,000 file
cabinets by alphabetical order. This system does not permit sorting by age, a
likely indicator of unclaimed and unpaid benefits. Because many government
employee records at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Retirement
Operations Center are not computerized, it's difficult to determine when a
federal retirement benefit has gone unclaimed and unpaid.
Federal retirement benefits
include Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) distributions, a defined-contribution plan
similar to a 401(K) created by the Federal Employees' Retirement System Act of
1986 to supplement FERS benefits.
As of 2012, TSP accounts for 4.5
million participants - including federal civilian employees in all branches of
government, U.S. Postal Service employees and members of the uniformed
services - totaled $313 billion.
Unclaimed government retirement
funds are not declared abandoned unless unclaimed by the employee's
115th birthday or 30 years after death; but virtually no effort is made
to find lost employees owed government pension benefits.
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Veteran Pension Benefits
VA helps Veterans and their families cope with financial challenges by
providing supplemental income through the Veterans Pension and Survivors
Pension benefit programs. VA offers two broad categories of Pension benefit
programs: Veterans Pension: Tax-free monetary benefit payable to low-income
wartime Veterans. Survivors Pension: Tax-free monetary benefit payable to a
low-income, un-remarried surviving spouse and/or unmarried child(ren) of a
deceased Veteran with wartime service.
Veterans and survivors who are eligible for pension
benefits and are housebound or require the aid and attendance of another
person may be eligible to receive additional monetary amounts.
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Railroad Retirement Benefits
The Railroad Retirement Act replaces Social
Security for railroad employees, providing payment of retirement, disability
and survivor benefits. Monthly benefits are payable to surviving widows,
children, and certain other dependents at the time of death of a covered
railroad employee. The Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act also provides
unemployment and sickness benefits for railroad employees, replacing
unemployment insurance.
The Railroad Retirement Trust Fund is valued at
approximately $18 billion. Currently 818,000 railroad retirees and heirs
are eligible for benefits, but five percent of addresses on file are not
current, because workers or family members have not made the proper
notification.
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