Federal Retirement:
Federal and Private Sector Retirement Program Benefits Vary
GGD-97-40: Published: Apr 7, 1997. Publicly Released: May 7, 1997.
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Pursuant to congressional requests, GAO reviewed federal and nonfederal retirement programs, focusing on: (1) an update of the reports on nonfederal retirement programs GAO completed for Congress when the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) was being designed; and (2) a comparison of current nonfederal programs with FERS and the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS). GAO did not independently verify the accuracy of the Watson Wyatt Worldwide database or the benefit amounts calculated.
GAO noted that: (1) the results of GAO's review revealed that there is no clear, bottom-line answer to the question of whether FERS and CSRS offer greater benefits, or smaller benefits, than private sector retirement programs; (2) the benefits available from FERS and CSRS can be smaller, similar, or greater than the average of the programs in the contractor's private sector employer database, depending on a number of factors and how these factors interact with the retirement programs' designs; (3) chief among these factors are the: (a) ages at which employees retire and at which programs provide unreduced benefits; (b) extent to which employees and employers contribute to the defined contribution plans that are integral components of FERS and most private sector programs; and (c) impact of cost-of-living adjustment practices on benefit amounts over the long term; (4) in fact, FERS and CSRS can provide quite different benefit amounts because of their different designs; and (5) as a rule, greater benefits are available from FERS than from CSRS, but FERS employees must contribute higher percentages of their salaries to receive the greater benefit amounts.
Jun 4, 2018
Central States Pension Fund:
Department of Labor Activities under the Consent Decree and Federal LawGAO-18-105: Published: Jun 4, 2018. Publicly Released: Jun 4, 2018.-
Central States Pension Fund:
Investment Policy Decisions and Challenges Facing the PlanGAO-18-106: Published: Jun 4, 2018. Publicly Released: Jun 4, 2018.
May 22, 2018
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Retirement Plan Investing:
Clearer Information on Consideration of Environmental Social and Governance Factors Would Be HelpfulGAO-18-398: Published: May 22, 2018. Publicly Released: May 22, 2018.
May 21, 2018
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Railroad Retirement Board:
Additional Controls and Oversight of Financial Interchange Transfers NeededGAO-18-323: Published: Apr 19, 2018. Publicly Released: May 21, 2018.
May 17, 2018
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Social Security Administration:
Observations on Use and Costs of Social Security CardsGAO-18-507T: Published: May 17, 2018. Publicly Released: May 17, 2018.
Mar 7, 2018
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Social Security Administration:
Continuing Leadership Focus Needed to Modernize How SSA Does BusinessGAO-18-432T: Published: Mar 7, 2018. Publicly Released: Mar 7, 2018.
Mar 5, 2018
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Workplace Retirement Accounts:
Better Guidance and Information Could Help Plan Participants at Home and Abroad Manage Their Retirement SavingsGAO-18-19: Published: Jan 31, 2018. Publicly Released: Mar 5, 2018.
Feb 21, 2018
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Railroad Retirement Board:
Actions Needed to Improve the Effectiveness and Oversight of Continuing Disability ReviewsGAO-18-287: Published: Feb 21, 2018. Publicly Released: Feb 21, 2018.
Jan 8, 2018
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Social Security Disability:
Additional Measures and Evaluation Needed to Enhance Accuracy and Consistency of Hearings DecisionsGAO-18-37: Published: Dec 7, 2017. Publicly Released: Jan 8, 2018.
Oct 18, 2017
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The Nation's Retirement System:
A Comprehensive Re-evaluation Is Needed to Better Promote Future Retirement SecurityGAO-18-111SP: Published: Oct 18, 2017. Publicly Released: Oct 18, 2017.
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