On September 19, 2000, the President signed the Federal Erroneous Retirement Coverage Corrections Act (FERCCA). This law addresses the problems created when Federal agencies put their employees in the wrong retirement plan. It gives certain employees a choice of retirement plans.

We are hard at work preparing to implement the law as quickly as possible. In the meantime, we recommend you take no further action to correct the coverage errors listed in Payroll Office Letter P-00-17, dated August 14, 2000, until we provide further guidance. We will provide guidance shortly on how to handle separations and retirements of employees affected by coverage errors who leave Federal service in the next couple of months.

We also will provide sample language that you can use to notify employees about FERCCA. We recommend you start thinking now about how you'll distribute a FERCCA notice to all of your employees.

We have attached a number of frequently asked questions that explain who FERCCA affects and how we plan to implement it. We encourage you to give a copy of these questions and answers to any employee who asks about FERCCA.

Employees can monitor the progress of our implementation efforts on our error correction web site at www.opm.gov/benefits/correction. Please assure employees that any time lag between enactment and full implementation will not adversely affect the choices available to them under FERCCA.

Mary Ellen Wilson, Director Retirement Policy Center Retirement and Insurance Service

Attachment

Download Letter as PDF File:

Download Attachment as PDF File:

Download Attachment as HTML File: