Feds aim to update system keeping thousands of retirees in pension limbo
CHICAGO (CBS) – A CBS 2 story about a lag in retirement benefits for government workers must've struck a chord.
The Morning Insiders heard from people having pension problems across the U.S. We asked the federal department behind the delays for an explanation multiple times. Lauren Victory finally heard back, but it's too late for some retirees.
When Beatrice Fells showed CBS 2 her pension paperwork in August of 2022, the South Holland woman had been fighting for more than two years to fix her lower-than-expected retirement checks.
"I don't sleep," Fells said last year. "I don't sleep."
A few weeks after that report, a benefits welcome letter arrived, then a follow-up came in the mail.
"That was the most ridiculous thing I'd ever seen in my life," said Karen Stingley, Fells' niece.
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management handles government employee pensions and after years spent processing Fells' case, OPM determined she was "overpaid" and actually owed the feds more than $200,000.
"How dare you come back and put this woman in that state of mind?" Stingley said.
Stingley speaks for her aunt now, because Fells died while trying to appeal the debt.
"She went to her grave worried about her pension," Stingley said.
An OPM spokesperson didn't comment on Fells' case in particular but did acknowledge a high retirement application backlog. More than 24,000 former government workers are in pension limbo, like Paul Peroutka.
OPM considers Peroutka's case to be addressed. He says he is being shorted more than $3,000 in each annuity statement.
"It almost sounded like it's a scripted response," Peroutka said.
The retired special agent has been going in circles with pension processing for 14 months. After CBS 2's story about his frustrations, Peroutka got an update from OPM.
"They put me in for 34 years and 4 months as part-time," he said. "Huge mistake. Huge calculation error."
CBS 2 was told paper is used for retirement casework, even in 2023. Recently, OPM made plans to get everything digitized with the help of tech businesses like Nava.
"What are the things that they have to do manually to kind of type in by hand over and over again?" said Nava co-founder Sha Hwang, who revamped Healthcare.gov, is ready to tackle similar challenges at OPM.
"What things can be replaced or updated or even removed entirely?" Hwang said.
The goal is to increase efficiency to help those still inside the government help the people who already served.
CBS 2 was told OPM is trying to cut down on delays by hiring more claims processors. Technology changes on the way include improving the website and accepting some signatures electronically.
A federal spokesperson could not provide CBS 2 with a timeline for those updates.