EARLY OUT RETIREMENT OFFERED TO ALL SSA EMPLOYEES

At least according to some of the older judges in my office, this is the first time they can remember an early retirement being offered to ALJs. Apparently, in the past they have been excluded from being eligible. Clearly the agency is trying to clear as much payroll as possible to avoid having to do any furlough days. A lot of people think that the fighting over the rest of FY11's budget will be a picnic as compared to what the FY12 budget process will be like.

I suppose though one could see the silver lining that a newly hired ALJ costs about $40k in salary less than an ALJ who would be eligible for retirement. So there would be some cost advantage for the agency to have ALJ's retire and be replaced with new hires

Presuming this is a VERA/V . . .

Early out really only makes sense to folks who have another job lined up or who are old enough to retire anyway (my 2 Cents).

Moreover, early out makes even less sense to non CSRS employees who are less than age 62, unless they have a job.

All the early out gets an employee is 25K, which has not changed forever. So, for most judges, it is not much. It just might make some retire in June who was thinking about December.

Anyone who takes a decreased annuity is nuts (again IMHO) because you can never get that back.

Another thing - technically, when you loose someone to an early out, you do not get to fill behind the job -but maybe they have a way around that.

I saw nothing in the announcement about any $25K bonus. Basically SSA is graciously allowing you to retire if you already qualify -- except for some minor issues on health insurance which most people who qualify already meet.

Normally, when an agency offers VERA/ it does so in combination with a VISIP - the 25K or 26 weeks. If, as my colleagues point out (and it looks like they are right) that SSA is so cheap and miserly (also unrealistic) not to offer an incentive, then I modify my opinion as follows: "There is no reason or advantage to accept this VERA."

In any event, while I have heard of an agency not offering an incentive, such an event is not the norm. I mean, realistically, why bother??

But, normally your benefits are significantly higher if you stay longer (I don't have experience with FERS, only a state system). So, are they saying they will pay you now the same amount you would get if you stayed until X date or X years of service, or There has to be some tangible incentive to leave early, I would think. Otherwise, I would think it's only going to impact those who were thinking about retiring by the end of the year or so.

Humm, a good deal for people who planned to go out in a year or two and don't get a salary bump due to the pay freeze.

Don't forget that in the not so distant past, most ALJs hired into SSA had a substantial number of years under their belts and likely eligibility for a full pension either from the military or some state government. I know of at least one ALJ who is now talking about taking the latest "early out" who did fully retire from the military prior to accepting the ALJ position off the old register. This person may not be at full Social Security retirement age, but since they have a working spouse who could pay all of their bills alone it may not matter as much as getting the heck out of ODAR. If I were in the same circumstances I think I might head for the door myself and not look back. The crack of the whip for "more, faster" no matter how well you produce can get old for some ALJs who were not used to producing at super high volume with less than adequate resources and little to no appreciation at their former positions. It can also be exhausting trying to get work done when the ALJ is not the "supervisor" of the support staff that is supposed to be keeping the cases moving and the actual supervisors don't have good control of things. Some offices are so bad in that regard that it could be an incentive to head for the door.

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Retirement Security

You probably said this in a different way but there is no actual cash payout involved with the FERS sick leave credit. Sick leave time is simply added to your length of service which will increase retirement benefits. Many FERS employees were burning their sick leave before retiring so this incentive was added. CSRS employees already had the full benefit. It really doesn't amount to much in additional retirement payments but many judges are putting off retirement until 2014 to get the credit. It will add about 6 months to my length of service. I will receive 1.1% per year of service of my high five upon retirement so 6 months of sick leave service would actually add .55% of high five salary per annum about $76.00 per month. I'm not a math wizard or even close so read these numbers with that in mind.