OPM
or the office of personnel management is an organization that manages the records of of federal employees including but not restricted to all the retirement applications and processes.
New Scams Surround Notification of OPM’s Data Breach
The Office for Personnel Management (OPM), the office responsible for setting policy for Federal Employees in the Washington area is warning people about new scams surrounding the notification process from their most recent data breach. The Better Business Bureau has also been notified recently of a number of different approaches that scammers are taking to further gain personal information in direct relation to this notification process. Learn how to avoid these scams and find out how the OPM is dealing with this issue before doing anything further with notifications you receive.
Original Information Breach at OPM
This data breach was actually discovered and realized in June 2015, yet it is still making news because of how new scammers are taking advantage of the notification process. The original information breach included an unprecedented 21.5 million Americans. The breach did not just affect federal employees and job applicants as the breach centered around the hiring process that also included background checks. This extended breach may include those contacted during the background check process for federal employees. This is significant because it helps confuse the situation as many receiving letters may not be federal employees or even applied for a federal position.
The information at risk is varied and can include a person’s Social Security Number, mental health records, financial history and even fingerprint information. As a result there are multiple letter formats being sent as notification to individuals with different personal information breaches. This can also add to the confusion as two people may compare letters that are markedly different.
How Notification is being handled
Notification for this data breach by the OPM is also being handled differently than previous data breaches. The previous breach, people were notified by email, whereas in this breach notifications are being sent by traditional mail through the US Postal Service.
So if you receive an email notification, regarding this recent data breach, it is most likely a scam.
As notification letters can differ in their format you have to be sure that the one you receive in the mail is an authentic version. Authentic letters can be verified in a few different ways. First and foremost all real letters will include a 25 digit PIN (Personal Identification Number) allowing you to sign up for free identity theft and credit monitoring by the government. You will be directed to enroll at:
• www.opm.gov/cybersecurity or
• 1-800-750-3004
If you receive a letter that directs you anywhere else, or does not have a PIN, it is a fraudulent letter. You can also go directly to the OPM website to verify your letter version as all versions are listed on their website. Being vigilante about your personal details mentioned in these letters may also help recognize a fake letter.
What Scams to look out for
There are a number of ways that organized crime is targeting individuals in order to gain access to their personal information in relation to the data breach notification process. The easiest one to recognize is if you are notified any other way besides an official letter through the US Postal Service. If you receive an email or a direct telephone call from someone saying they are with the OPM regarding this data breach, it is most likely a scam. Your first contact will be a mailed letter. Do not click on any unknown emails regarding this issue as even clicking to open them can often infect your computer.
Secondly, make sure to authenticate all letters received by mail, as multiple versions of scammed letters have been discovered. The first tell-tale sign is no PIN number as described above. The second sign is a letter directing you to visit or call any other website or phone number from that provided above.
Unfortunately the OPM data breach is still causing significant problems for Americans, be sure you do not fall into this secondary trap.
Federal Employees Telework during Winter Storms
The Office for Personnel Management, the office responsible for setting policy for Federal Employees in the Washington area recently updated its annual policy memo on working in winter weather conditions. Not typically a big news story this year’s policy had less changes in past years except for one small addition that may lead to a disconnect with employees.
How one policy can affect the US Economy?
The OPM releases an annual policy memo for Federal Agencies in the Washington area that is meant to be followed for staying open, when to close and how to handle severe winter weather. This policy memo is not only followed by thousands of federal employees however as many institutions, schools and even businesses tend to follow this mandate.
These policies have major impacts across most organizations during winter severe weather as well on the major road and transit systems in the area. As this policy is often used as a resource for other areas and state governments, it can have far reaching effects.
When are you entitled to skip work for weather issues?
This policy statement however, only works when all employees and agencies understand and follow the memo. Acting Director Beth Cobert wants all agencies and employees to realize the importance of keeping to the same policy as it can have serious effects if agencies or employees follow their own separate policies.
These policies outline the basic policies for when agencies should open in inclement weather, when to close when severe weather hits and when to remain closed all day. The memo also helps agencies decide which days they can remain open but allow employees to take unscheduled leave, personal leave or to perform unscheduled telework. It can outline the delay in which employees can appear to work to allow extra time to get to work, as well as when to close early to allow safe travel home before a large storm hits. Of course it also outlines an immediate closure procedure as well in emergency weather situations.
Of course these policies are not meant to ever be used for emergency service personnel, whom are meant to work in all weather conditions.
Teleworkers required to keep working
The last major federal employee survey for teleworking completed in 2012 only showed 12% of workers telework. However with improvements in cyber security protocols, more agencies are allowing employees teleworking portions of their employment contracts. As such, the most recent survey has shown 31% of federal employees now participate in teleworking even occasionally.
With such a large portion of the federal employee with the option to work at home during severe weather the OPM has mandated in the memo that “employees that were previously scheduled to telework and those that have teleworking already in their employment agreements should continue to work during these weather situations and not be allowed paid time-off.” They also are encouraging employees that have teleworking in their contracts but not severe weather clauses to work through these situations in any case.
Of course the long term goal for most agencies the OPM is suggesting that any employees that have a telework portion to their employment situation be required to work during these severe weather events. In the end it would help the productivity of the government.
Substantial Time Improvements Seen In Retirement Processing
OPM speeds up Retirement processing:
Retirement processing has always been a tedious task but since October there have been some good changes made. On average, it took 37 days to get a case approved during the month of November and it’s a stark improvement compared to the 60 days it took in the earlier months.
Office of Personnel management managed to receive around 6,019 claims and it managed to get around 6100 claims during the month and that’s a great update.
The agency also made some serious changes to retirement claims and have now added a lot of data about the time it might take federal officers to get their retirement benefits. Retirement processing is now expected to take lesser time and this will also be indicated in the reports that are going to be presented to the retirees.
Advancements like these always fail to catch substantial media attention whereas critics are always ready to take the toll on OPM whenever something bad occurs. It’s only fair to appreciate when some good quality work is done too.
Mailing Letters Finished by OPM
Recently all of the victims of the recent OPM data breach started to get letters from the organization which at first appeared to be spams but later discoveries revealed that those were in fact sent by the organization. All of the current federal employees and the retirees who got their personal data (Social security numbers and other sensitive information) compromised in the breach have been sent notifications.
All OPM data breach notified:
Six months after the breach was told about to the public, the office of personnel management made the announcement that that it has now sent letters comprising of notifications to around 94 percent of the 21 million American officers that had got their information compromised by the OPM data breach.
There were in fact two big data breaches that occurred at almost the same time and there was an incomparable loss suffered. Now that all of the employees have been informed that they need to stop worrying, the whole picture looks a little better overall.
There have been some significant changes made in the online infrastructure of the OPM system as indicated by their cyber security expert. If we keep some of the technical information out of the text, we can say that it’s less vulnerable to outsider attacks than it was when the breaches took place. These letters were intended to ensure the officers of the improvements that OPM is continually making as an organization and now that everybody has been notified, it’s expected that the tension that was building up in offices and in homes where retirement funds are an absolute necessity is going to catch a cool. Here’s hoping that these claims of rejuvenated security by OPM actually mean something and that no further data breaches can occur now that they have improved their security.
Hits at OPM for Poor Data Breach Followup
OPM has always been at a place where they can’t evade the criticism. Some say that such is the nature of their work that they can’t afford any minor slip-ups and when unfortunately some predicaments come their way, they can’t manage to keep on both feet all the time. The same organization that compromised over 21 million American’s sensitive information including social security numbers and what not is once again in congressional scrutiny. This time they have been allegedly held responsible for not being able to protect the affected Americans by giving away taxpayer dollars without following the protocol.
Poor OPM Data breach follow-up:
The report that was released by the inspector general of OPM this month indicated the findings made that depicted that they have been improperly handing the contract that were awarded to a company that was employed to keep the records of the identities of the Americans safe. These were the same Americans whose data got compromised in the OPM data breach, the blame of which was given to hackers based in China.
This was a very strange revelation to say the least and it forced the Congress to take some actions and they called a committee to sit and argue to discover the intricacies of this matter. Ultimately Ms Donna Seymour who is the CIO for OPM was declared incapable for performing the important duties for organization by Mr. Chaffetz. He further mentioned that because yet another report has highlighted her incompetence, it was high time she was dismissed.
The director of OPM had resigned a month after the announcement was made but is it best for the organization that Donna resigned soon as well? That’s what most of the lawmakers have to say on this matter and pertaining to the recent revelations of her ineptness, we would like to think so too.
A Non Existent Retirement Wave
There have always been some warnings that have been made regarding a federal retirement wave in the country since the very beginning. This is the process which involves a large amount of people that were born during the two decades between 1940 and 1960. As a part of this phenomenon, all these people will approach retirement eligibility within a very small tenure and will be taking a really substantial amount of institutional information out with them too.
Is the retirement wave of harm?
This idea has made the government think a lot and there have been hundreds of personnel policies and laws that have been designed to meet this retirement wave when it takes place. This also led the government to take initiatives that are going to force (or entice) employees to stay on their office tables and not just call it a quits. Surprisingly though, this all-anticipated wave is just passing by quietly and not causing any expected disruption.
This has been made possible by excellent efforts made by the office of personnel management. The latest data revealed by the organization depicts that there were over 68 thousand retirements made during the year 2014 (that reached an end last September). This meant that there was a rise of around 3 thousand from the fiscal year 2013 but a little bit below the level of 2012 by around 600.
This increase in retirements during the last four years represents the declined decisions made by officers that could have retired earlier but didn’t because of the 2008 economic downturn. The numbers are going to keep rising and it’s expected that there might be some issues that would be need to get dealt with in the years to come. Here’s hoping that things turn out the way we expect them to and this feared wave passes by without causing much disruption.
Watchdog services offered to federal employees after OPM breach
The data breach of OPM isn’t news to anybody associated to the federal government and it was something that didn’t just have far reaching victims but it also had some far reaching consequences. Federal employees have since started to become really careful about their data and find the OPM data security protocols to be not substantially secure.
OPM data breach has wide spread effects:
There have been some really strong words said about the data breach by the people that are normally affected by such incidents. Employees of the federal government are receiving letters about how they can better their data’s security in some way as their concerns for the earlier breach continue to rise. This includes any of their personal data that encompasses but is not limited to their social security numbers, any government related information, finger prints and other sensitive exploitable details.
OPM, the office of personnel management has been sending out a lot of letters throughout the country in which they have instructed the employees to sign up for a funded watchdog service program. This program is also applicable to the families of the employees and is completely devoid of any costs for the initial 3 years.
In this regard, they have also released an alert that is applicable to all the employees. Currently there are people and organizations that are offering free services in exchange of some information. These are scammers and should be avoided at any cost. The organization has further raised their concern and said that even though they are not familiar with any data breaches, they will make it their sole aim to ensure that no more data gets compromised. Here’s hoping that they live up to their claim and the feds can for a change, forget about worrying for their personal data.
OPM Data Breach Solution… What About a Plan? by Dianna Tafazoli
OPM has hired Theft Guard Solutions, LLC (DBA ID Experts) out of Portland, Oregon to help with their data security breach headache. The company has been around since 2003, about 12 years. The company’s Chief Executive Officer is Robert S. Gregg. There is no information on his compensation or other tidbits that might be interesting reading for the Washington political scene. It is also not clear as to the background the company has that makes it ideal to tackle the biggest cyber crime against the United States in its history. The company provides software and services to assist their clients in managing privacy and security incidents. The company was selected from five companies that made offers via the General Services Administration’s (GSA) electronic request-for-quote system.
Theft Guard Solutions was awarded a contract in the amount of $133,253,500 with a cumulative value to $329,825,588 ending December, 2018, if all options are exercised. The company will provide credit and identity services, identity theft insurance, identity restoration services, website and call center services to Federal employees, retirees and their families who were impacted through background investigation records and had sensitive information stolen.
The announcement of the award to Theft Guard Solutions was announced jointly by the United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the United States Department of Defense (DOD). The company is tasked by the award of the contract with providing an estimated 21.5 million individuals (active, retired and families) with identity theft protection services whose information was compromised as a result of the OPM data security breach.
This certainly sounds like good news for those individuals whose lives might otherwise be turned upside down trying to untangle the web often created when a person’s identity is stolen. Many individuals suffer great losses in addition to having to prove they are who they say they are and are not the person or persons who have made unauthorized purchases, committed crimes and participated in an array of unsavory actions. Hopefully, individuals in the Federal workforce will bypass this trauma with the help of Theft Guard Solutions.
Ok, we get it that a company has been awarded a contract to help the Federal employees overcome the pitfalls of identity theft and everything else that comes with it; but what about a plan, a strategy that prevents cyber crimes and data breaches. Is there such a company out there? Theft Guard Solutions outlined what they will do and can do, but I did not see any mention of stopping, preventing or blocking cyber crimes. They will be finished with their obligations all things being equal by 2018. What then? If cyber crimes are committed by cyber criminals then why not beef-up cyber police. I would hate to think that cyber criminals are smarter than cyber police. I do think they are more vigilant and stay up later at night figuring out ways to get one-up on the good guys. I’ve got an idea. Find out who the cyber criminals are, the best ones – the crème of the crop and instead of carting them off to jail – punish them by sentencing them to telling the cyber police how to play the game and win. After all, nobody knows better what goes into making Bush’s bean great but a Bush.
P. S. Always Remember to Share What You Know.
Dianna Tafazoli
A Shift In Focus In Retirement Reports Made By OPM
OPM has always been considered prone to making and inculcating changes and this month, as a federal employee you can expect your monthly retirement report to look a little changed from what it appeared to be last month.
Mr. Zawodny who is the retirement services’ spokesperson and associate director said that the organization has somewhat altered the focus of its monthly reports and now will focus more on highlighting the information that the feds and the potential retiring officers would need to know in order to make some prudent decisions about their retirement plans.This information will bring about a stark difference and will provide them with the options that they might have in case they are considering opening their retirement funds or changing the type of programs that they fall under.
Details like “When will my first retirement fund check reach me?” or “How much money would I end up saving” will also be made part of the updated reports that are going to be dispatched at the end of the following month. This would mean that many of the details like the number of claims and other rudimentary figures will be left out and only the most important stuff will be presented to the employees.
The employees would also be able to get to know how much time it’s going to take for their applications to get registered, processed and in the longer run approved too. The monthly rates of contributions that will be required to make will also be put to paper.
This is one step that was thought of quite some while ago and the OPM’s body was trying to make the change as soon as possible but it will be somewhat striking to the employees that have been seeing the same monthly retirement reports for quite some time now.
Work-Life Programs Welcomed By Federal Employees
Federal Work-Life Programs
The life of federal employees is never free of changes. Depending on how you take it, there might be good news for you or bad news. 90 percent of the federal employees (According to study) reveal that they consider their work to be of a great importance. This survey/study was conducted by the OPM (office of personnel management) and 75 percent of the responses that were made this year were positive than those made in the previous year’s study.
It’s however not vividly clear how we can analyze this level of engagement. The survey also revealed that there are around 65 percent of employees that consider themselves “engaged” and committed according to the benchmarks set by OPM. These benchmarks normally include the dedication effort and resilience of the employees for their job. The figure has not really seen changes in the past few years.
Apart from the usual stuff, the study based survey also played a huge role in making OPM understand whether the employees want to achieve a better work-life balance or whether they are satisfied with what they currently have to deal with. The survey revealed that the employees are welcoming the change.
One of the most popular program that is about to get introduced is that the schedule of the employees be made a lot more flexible than it currently is. This will allow them to manage doing non-work chores during their work time as well. There is a strong majority of people who don’t like having flexible time schedules but still it wasn’t surprising to see that around 90 percent of the employee participants gave an “Aye!” to the program.
There were other programs like the included child care program and the elder care program that received lower ratings of 72 percent and 66 percent respectively.
Even though there are divided opinions or whether these programs should be included in the work life of the employees or not, to us, these are positive steps and need to be implemented sooner rather than later.
Employee Express Couldn’t Bear The Load; Customer Services of OPM Fail
OPM and its cyber security has always been critiqued heavily by the federal employees and other experts of the game but there are not going to be many feds out there that will hold it against OPM because they have been taking as many steps to improve the infrastructure as they can. Although there have been made some serious alterations to the Employee Express platform and this has caused a wave a frustration to develop in the federal employees. This incident is another instance for other institutions that customer service is something that needs to be really uptight at all times.
IF you aren’t aware of EE, then it’s an online web portal that’s operated by the office of personnel management and it allows the feds to monitor and assess their personal data and salary information as well. They can even make changes in their personal details like address and saving plans directly into the OPM database through the website.
Why Employee Express caused OPM Customer Service to fail.
OPM had to face some serious threats from hackers and their system was made very vulnerable to cyber-attacks. This led them to make some changes to their networks and because they had to add some security measures, this cause the whole system to get slow. More and more people had to call the customer service desk and nobody got the response that they were looking for and the whole system metaphorically collapsed.
The management of OPM thinks that it’s only a matter of time till they can fix all the issues and the EE website will once again be made available for use like nothing was wrong. They believe that these steps are of substantial importance and they expect the employees to cooperate. The feds though are enraged and are demanding immediate repair of the web portal. Here’s hoping that things get worked out soon.
Federal Agencies To Not Testify About OPM Hack
Federal Agencies To Not Testify About OPM Hack
The government’s personnel agency’s officers have out of the blue rejected that they possess any information about the recent OPM hack and have refused to become a part of the meeting to be held by members of the Congress behind closed doors. To make unaware people aware, this briefing was called because of a huge security breach that took place in the recent past and ended up causing data damage to over 20 million federal employees.
The office of personnel management saw this breach happen last year and it completely beat the security threats that Washington used to have. Threats were received from various terrorist groups and other outside parties about potential future breaches as well.
Why Won’t these agencies meet about the OPM Hack?
The main homeland security department along with OPM and all its constituents have declined the request to sit in the meeting and this has caused many fires to gain strength. The reason behind this immediate refusal to sit down is that it’s expected that all the conversations that are to be made will be written down and can possibly be held against the people in debate.
Apart from this, the members from the defense department and all the officers from the intelligence community of the US made their testimonies as expected and the director of the meeting Mr. Thornberry further said that this sudden decline of the request was something that he didn’t expect one bit.
OPM has been compromised via cyber-attacks twice already in the recent past and it has led many critics and do-gooders to criticize and analyze every action that it takes. These attacks were said to have been made by Chinese hackers.
Where it’s still unclear whether the members of the OPM and the other two committees will end u giving testimonies soon or not, it’s definitely clear that OPM does need a bit of strengthening in its online affairs.
OPM Progresses – Providing Federal Employment For Disabled People
COLA-LifeRingOPM Claims Progress in Providing Federal Employment For People With Disabilities
Back in 2010, President Obama called upon federal agencies and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to provide federal employment for 100,000 people with disabilities.
OPM now says it’s made quite a bit of headway towards this goal. With a whole year of data still to come, the government hired 71,967 full-time permanent federal employees with disabilities in between 2011-2014.
Throw in part-time permanent employees, and the number increases to 80,469. If you factor in temporary employees, the total increases to 115,221.
All told, there were more people with disabilities in federal employment than at any time since the record-keeping began 34 years ago.
In the past year alone, the share of people with disabilities as a percentage of the federal workforce has risen from 12.8 percent to 13.6 percent. Oh, and these aren’t just token jobs. A full 16.4 percent of the new hires among people with disabilities were at the GS 14 and 15 levels.
OPM Director On Federal Employment Opportunities For People With Disabilities
Beth F. Cobert is the Acting Director at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
In a blog post on the OPM.gov website about the federal employment numbers for people with disabilities, Director Corbet said that “This important story is about more than numbers. By demonstrating our commitment to providing equal employment opportunities for Americans with disabilities, we are also tapping into a talent pool that enriches the 2-million strong Federal workforce.”
“We’re holding leaders accountable. We’re working with agencies and affinity groups to build mentoring programs, because we know how important great mentors are to fostering confidence and success. And, we are committed to working with agencies in an effort to provide people with disabilities the reasonable accommodations they need to do their jobs,” added Director Corbet.
Federal Retirement Backlog Still Backed Up
Federal Retirement Backlog Still Backed Up
Despite efforts to reduce a massive federal retirement backlog, the Office of Personnel Management did not make much headway in August, according to numbers released by the OPM. The OPM began tracking their progress in May of 2014 as a way to help reduce the retirement benefits backlog.
Currently the Office of Personnel Management has a backlog of 16,350 applications for federal retirement. This number is only down by 105 from July. Although the Office of Personnel Management processed just under 7500 retirement claims last month, they fell short of their goal by about 150. Compounded with the 7,341 new government retirement claims received in August, (roughly 550 more than received the same time last year) the numbers may not be dropping anytime soon.
The Numbers Keep Growing
The Office of Personnel Management saw progress in backlog reduction from March through May, but new applications grew the backlog by almost 2,000 applications in June and July. The backlog grew from 14,511 to 16,455 between June and July. The OPM had projected a backlog of about 11,442 by July, but were stymied by the unexpected influx of new applications. As of May, the backlog of federal retirement benefits was reduced by 15.6 percent.
Percentages of claims processed each month have dropped 12 percent from the high of 83.7 percent in December of 2014. In the last six months, they have averaged just over 70 percent, with some months dropping as low as 68 percent processing.
In most years, the OPM receives a high volume or retirement applications in January, with levels lowering to a steadier flow throughout the year. It is common for some months to spike though.
Budget Cuts Complicate Matters
Retired federal employees may be concerned because government-wide budget cuts take effect in October, reducing the amount of overtime the OPM can pay to claims handlers. The budget cuts will also reduce the OPM’s ability to hire new employees to help tackle the overflow.
In addition, retired federal employees may face longer delays if the government cannot reach a budget agreement for funding agencies by midnight, October 1. A government shutdown would delay retirement benefits processing and potentially add to the backlog.
The OPM has struggled to clear the backlog for years and frequently deals with frustrated retired federal employees and complaints from Congress. The Office of Personnel Management set a goal to reduce the number of claims by just over 11,000 by the end of September, which does not appear to be likely.
According to the OPM website, retired federal employees should expect their first payment within 5 to 7 days from the time the OPM receives the electronic files. The OPM says that delays may be caused by missing information and that some 23 percent of applications filed are missing some information and about 11 percent fail to meet the 30-day deadline. The OPM typically attributes these errors to the agency from which the retiree completed their service.
August’s low numbers follow a backlog growth of 13 percent in July.
Open Season: A Rare Time for FEGLI
FEGLI – A Rare Open Season
There is a huge window of opportunity approaching, for the first time in 11 years the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is permitting an open season for the Federal Employee’s Group Life Insurance (FEGLI) from September 1 to 30, 2016. In conjunction, the new 2016 premiums rates for FEGLI plans were also announced.
During the month-long open season, eligible federal employee can elect or increase their FEGLI life insurance through an online submission to their human resources office via the Employee Benefits Information System (EBIS).
“FEGLI open seasons are extremely rare, and the most recent open season was in 2004. This is great news” said Steve Beem, Human Resource Specialist assigned to the Fort Leonard Wood Civilian Personnel Advisory Center. Prior to 2004, there was an FEGLI open season in 1999.
The FEGLI program provides optional term life insurance for federal employees, with the option for the coverage to follow them into retirement. The basic form coverage is equal to the employee’s salary rounded up to the next $1,000 with an additional $2,000. Employees share the cost of being enrolled into the program. Employees pay two-thirds of the cost, with the exception of Postal Service employees, who relish in the Postal Service paying the full amount for its employees. Retirees are obligated to pay the entire cost.
Outside of the open season federal employees are only eligible to enroll or increase their FEGLI coverage in the instance of a life event, and retirees are not eligible to increase the coverage they carried over to retirement.
Underneath the newly adjusted 2016 premium rates, effective January 1, the following changes will be made to the FEGLI premium rates.
An employee with basic insurance coverage under the age of 65 is currently paying $2.27 per month, and will pay $2.46 next year; while a retiree over the age of 65 will pay an increased premium of $2.13 from its current $1.94. The premium increase for retirees is close to 10 percent.
Employees with the optional $10,000 add-on coverage will see a decrease in their premiums from 60 to 40 cents biweekly; with the exception of retirees, who will see no change to their current premium rate.
Also, employees who have elected for additional coverage in multiples of salary will experience a decrease in their premium rate, with the exception of enrollees 75 years of age and older.
Employees with family coverage up to the age of 35 will not experience a rate change. Employees ranging from ages 35 to 59 will enjoy a slight decrease in premium rates, while employees 60 to 69 maintain steady premium rates. Active employees 70 and older will pay a higher premium in 2016.
In the OPM notice, it was noted that “the legislative structure of the FEGLI Program assumes that we set premium rates for each age band independently of the other bands so that each age ban is financially self-supporting.”
However, federal employees need to be wary that the changes they make to their FEGLI benefits in September of 2016 will not become effective until the first full pay period of on or after October 1, 2017. OPM’s reason for the extensive delayed effective date is to minimize the risk that “less healthy individuals,” will use the rare occasion to increase their coverage.
The announcement of the uncommon open season and adjusted premium rates comes on the heels of the OPM announcing that premiums in the Federal Long Term Care Insurance Program had increased its premiums with no prior warning.
Historically, FEGLI open seasons are triggered by a change in the law or by trends in claims. “OPM has completed a study of funding and claims experience within the FEGLI Program. Based on this updated actuarial analysis of actual claims experience, OPM has determined that changes are required…These changes reflect updated mortality and claims rates from actual program experience with each FEGLI category,” stated a notice from the OPM Office.
According the OPM, a meager 7 percent of federal employees are enrolled in the long-term care program while an impressive 82 percent are enrolled in the FEGLI program.
FEGLI was established August 29, 1954 and quickly became the largest group life insurance program in the world; the program provides coverage to more than four million federal employees and retirees, to include many of the employee’s family members.
Normally, new employees are automatically enrolled into the basic term life insurance program with an automatic debit from the employees’ paycheck; unless the employee waives the coverage. For employees to receive the additional coverage options, they must take action to elect them; employees are not automatically enrolled as they are for the basic coverage.
The Office of Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance is a private entity that has a contract with the federal government. The Office processes and pays claims beneath the FEGLI program.
OTHER FEGLI RELATED ARTICLES:
What is FEGLI Option A, Option B and Option C?
Evaluating your life insurance policy by Todd Carmack
Converting FEGLI to Individual Life Insurance After Separation From Federal Service
Who Gets Your FEGLI Life Insurance Benefits When You Die?
FEGLI – Federal Life Insurance Living Benefits Guide
How Hacked is my TSP Account? by Dianna Tafazoli
No TSP Worry for Federal employees stemming from OPM Hack.
The good news is that federal employees don’t have to worry about their Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) being hacked as a result of the OPM massive security breach. Millions of federal workers, retirees and their family members were impacted by the breach. These public sector employees may be worried for a long time as there is no guarantee that their identity has not been stolen and just what is the long term consequences of the breach.
The majority of the federal workforce today is made up of FERS employees. Part of the FERS retirement program is participation in the Thrift Savings Plan or the TSP, making up the largest component of FERS retirement. As such, all FERS employees are enrolled in the TSP unless they opt out which would not be in their best interest when retirement knocks at the door.
The TSP is not administered by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) where the breach took place, but under a completely different authority. The TSP does not share customer account numbers with OPM and as a result federal employees participating in the Thrift Savings Plan don’t have to worry about cyber security breaches, at least not for now. The TSP reports that even prior to the news of OPM’s breach, part of its safeguarding efforts had been to protect customer accounts by employing mechanisms that not only safeguarded technology at the TSP but ways for customers to protect their own computers from phishing and other would be scams.
The TSP appears to be safe with technology so far that has not been compromised. Remember criminals always seem smarter than those charged with legal enforcement. If OPM can be hacked then we better not get too comfortable anywhere. However, it does feel good to know that the TSP is being proactive and not reactive.
P. S. Always Remember to Share What You Know.
Dianna Tafazoli
Other Federal Retirement Articles
IMPORTANT UPDATE…FEGLI Open Enrollment Season! by Gary Fouts
No COLA Increases in Social Security Benefits
Are You Thinking About a “Deferred” Retirement? by Gary Fouts
SCOTUS Ruling Impact on Federal Employee and Retirement Benefits
Are Hackers Smarter Than The Government’s IT Developers
Are Hackers Smarter Than The Government’s IT Developers – By Dianna Tafazoli
The Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Katherine Archuleta, became another ‘casualty of war’ when the records of millions of Federal workers active and retired were hacked compromising their safety and security. The Director testified on Capitol Hill and seemed to play down the severity and quantity of the data breach. However, unions differed with Ms. Archuleta’s perspective and began filing law suits against the agency.
Ms. Archuleta vowed that she would not step down when more and more calls for her resignation filled the Washington airways. Late Friday evening Ms. Archuleta went to the White Office and moments later, her resignation had been given and accepted by the President and an acting director was in place. Beth Cobert, U.S.. Chief Performance Officer and Deputy Director at the Office of Management and Budget will hold the reigns at OPM until a replacement is named.
The breach was not the original 4.1 million records initially reported by Director Archuleta, but more than 22.1 million records. Will getting rid of Katherine Archuleta fix OPM’s problems or the problem of hacking anywhere. I don’t think so. Criminals always seem to be smarter than the Police. They usually have better or more sophisticated weapons. And in this case, OPM is the police and the hackers are the criminals. It would be a safe bet to say that the hackers know much more about IT than OPM or the rest of the government.
Accountability is mandatory at every level of management and non-management as well. However, I am not certain that hackers can be stopped anymore than we can stop many of the other ills we struggle with in this country. There are too many to name. The remedy for hacking might rest squarely with what kind of information is placed in data banks, not whether the data can be hacked or not. The system needs to be revamped. It is too easy perhaps for hackers when databases use social security numbers, names and addresses. Data that is not easily deciphered is the key to controlling data breaches.
The world has gotten smaller and the world has changed so significantly from what it used to be 30, 40, 50, 60 or even 70 years ago. Yet, when applications are completed and information is requested, it is the same ‘old’ thing – name, social security number, address, phone number and on and on. If programmers are still dancing the same waltz with no new steps added to make it not rote to learn, then the hacker’s job is probably relatively easy.
The government cannot continue using the same ingredients to make chocolate chip cookies and expect to get Swiss banana pecan chocolate potato chips as a result. Stop data breaches, stop the hackers – change what goes into the data set. A change as small but as significant as what goes into the data set will confuse the hackers long enough so that by the time they unravel the system, you are two steps ahead changing the data input yet again. Security protection means constant change to stay ahead of the criminals.
Dianna Tafazoli
P.S. Always Remember to Share What You Know.
