USPS begins cash conservation plan Temporarily suspends payments to Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS)

[WorldWatcher]

...whereas government employees have free healthcare,...

What government employees get free health care? (Outside military service members.)

WW

 

[Care4all]

https://news.usps.com/2026/04/09/usps-begins-cash-conservation-plan/

The Postal Service has informed the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) of its intention to temporarily suspend its employer’s contributions for the defined benefit portion of the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) to conserve cash and preserve liquidity due to its ongoing, severe financial crisis.

“There will not be any immediate detrimental impact to our current or future retirees if normal FERS cost payments are temporarily withheld,” said Postal Service Chief Financial Officer Luke Grossmann. “The risk to the Postal Service and the American public from insufficient liquidity for postal operations dramatically outweighs any longer-term risk to the pension funds from not making the currently due payments. We will continue to transmit to OPM employees’ contributions to FERS and will also continue to transmit employer automatic and matching contributions and employee contributions to the Thrift Savings Plan. It must be noted that our pension systems remain much better funded than other agencies.”

The Postal Service pays about $200 million every other week to OPM for the FERS annuity. Suspension of payments, effective April 10, will free about $2.5 billion in the current fiscal year.

And make their financial problems $2.5B worse next year.

ETA: As a reminder, the USPS is buying 66,000 electric vehicles at a program cost of $145,454 per unit.

The USPS is nothing but a bloated jobs program.

The son of a ***** past two post master generals, were put in there to DESTROY it, so the billionaires can get their wish of privatizing it.

And HECK NO, they should NOT stop first class mail and go to all packages. (Junk mail is different)

All package only is just another UPS or Fedx.... So they will not do what the constitution demanded, deliver our correspondence, our MAIL, not packages, MAIL.

 

[SaxonJackson]

https://news.usps.com/2026/04/09/usps-begins-cash-conservation-plan/

The Postal Service has informed the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) of its intention to temporarily suspend its employer’s contributions for the defined benefit portion of the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) to conserve cash and preserve liquidity due to its ongoing, severe financial crisis.

“There will not be any immediate detrimental impact to our current or future retirees if normal FERS cost payments are temporarily withheld,” said Postal Service Chief Financial Officer Luke Grossmann. “The risk to the Postal Service and the American public from insufficient liquidity for postal operations dramatically outweighs any longer-term risk to the pension funds from not making the currently due payments. We will continue to transmit to OPM employees’ contributions to FERS and will also continue to transmit employer automatic and matching contributions and employee contributions to the Thrift Savings Plan. It must be noted that our pension systems remain much better funded than other agencies.”

The Postal Service pays about $200 million every other week to OPM for the FERS annuity. Suspension of payments, effective April 10, will free about $2.5 billion in the current fiscal year.

And make their financial problems $2.5B worse next year.

ETA: As a reminder, the USPS is buying 66,000 electric vehicles at a program cost of $145,454 per unit.

The USPS is nothing but a bloated jobs program.

Trump's America!!

 

[JonKoch]

I live comfortably in retirement on my 401Ks provided by my private sector employers and my investments. Your response is typical knee jerk rubbish. Come back when you actually THINK about what I said. Or not, that works too.

Sure, there are exceptions to the rules, but the disappearing pensions in the private sector is related to trickle down (voodoo) of the past 50+ years. Anyone being honest knows this. But we need more "wealthy" people for the right to kneel too

 

[leftwinger]

???

I was just resting what symbols would pop up. Forgot to delete it in time.

 

[EdwinAMartin]

What government employees get free health care? (Outside military service members.)

WW

Some peddle the myth that MEdicare is free as well. It's bullshit. Whatever else one doesn't like or does like about the Feds and govt. agencies and workers, lying about stuff doesn't help.

 

[MarathonMike]

Sure, there are exceptions to the rules, but the disappearing pensions in the private sector is related to trickle down (voodoo) of the past 50+ years. Anyone being honest knows this. But we need more "wealthy" people for the right to kneel too






View attachment 1242002

Sigh I guess I have to educate another one. Private Sector companies transitioned away from pension plans to 401K (or similar) retirement plans because of the MASSIVE LIABILITIES that pension plans become.

There are nearly 3 million Federal employees currently and over 1.2 million former Federal employees drawing FERS benefits. Do you see the problem now? You do know that taxpayers pay for the FERS benefits and Federal employee salaries, right? Class dismissed.

 

[WorldWatcher]

Sigh I guess I have to educate another one. Private Sector companies transitioned away from pension plans to 401K (or similar) retirement plans because of the MASSIVE LIABILITIES that pension plans become.

I was an HR professional for decades.

The reason there were MASSIVE LIABILITIES is because the defined benefits plans:

• Were managed by the employer, meaning they could make promises today their ass couldn't meet in the future.
• Were managed by the employer, instead of being paid properly and managed properly by 3rd party entities. The employer had a motivation to keep the money in the business instead of investing for the retirement promisses.

There is no real difference between a PROPERLY funded and managed defined benefits program and a defined contributions program. As a matter of fact many retirees convert define contributions retirement savings to defined benefit retirements by converting to annuities.

There are nearly 3 million Federal employees currently and over 1.2 million former Federal employees drawing FERS benefits. Do you see the problem now? You do know that taxpayers pay for the FERS benefits and Federal employee salaries, right? Class dismissed.

You are trying to use scary scale numbers. It doesn't matter of it's 10 employees or 3,000,000 employees. Properly funded pensions are perfectly fine.

There are a couple of real reasons pensions wained...

• We became a much more mobile society so people weren't in the jobs long enough for pensions, and
• Wall street figured out they could make a shit ton of money by skimming revenue off of an obscure tax law - that being the 401K provision.

The video below explains who Wall Street saw the advantages.

WW

 

[The Duke]

USPS is overcharging and underperforming. Chinese shippers are eating their and the other 2 big shippers' lunches.
It'd be better to subsidize USPS and maintain global shipping superiority, IMO. (which has been lost)

 

[EdwinAMartin]

I was an HR professional for decades.

The reason there were MASSIVE LIABILITIES is because the defined benefits plans:

• Were managed by the employer, meaning they could make promises today their ass couldn't meet in the future.
• Were managed by the employer, instead of being paid properly and managed properly by 3rd party entities. The employer had a motivation to keep the money in the business instead of investing for the retirement promisses.

There is no real difference between a PROPERLY funded and managed defined benefits program and a defined contributions program. As a matter of fact many retirees convert define contributions retirement savings to defined benefit retirements by converting to annuities.



You are trying to use scary scale numbers. It doesn't matter of it's 10 employees or 3,000,000 employees. Properly funded pensions are perfectly fine.

There are a couple of real reasons pensions wained...

• We became a much more mobile society so people weren't in the jobs long enough for pensions, and
• Wall street figured out they could make a shit ton of money by skimming revenue off of an obscure tax law - that being the 401K provision.

The video below explains who Wall Street saw the advantages.

WW

Mainly Managers just looted them or left them unfunded while paying their own pensions or just using the money to give themselves big bonuses.

 

[Harry Dresden]

Sigh I guess I have to educate another one. Private Sector companies transitioned away from pension plans to 401K (or similar) retirement plans because of the MASSIVE LIABILITIES that pension plans become.

There are nearly 3 million Federal employees currently and over 1.2 million former Federal employees drawing FERS benefits. Do you see the problem now? You do know that taxpayers pay for the FERS benefits and Federal employee salaries, right? Class dismissed.

you dont pay mine....im CSR...

 

[MarathonMike]

I was an HR professional for decades.

The reason there were MASSIVE LIABILITIES is because the defined benefits plans:

• Were managed by the employer, meaning they could make promises today their ass couldn't meet in the future.
• Were managed by the employer, instead of being paid properly and managed properly by 3rd party entities. The employer had a motivation to keep the money in the business instead of investing for the retirement promisses.

There is no real difference between a PROPERLY funded and managed defined benefits program and a defined contributions program. As a matter of fact many retirees convert define contributions retirement savings to defined benefit retirements by converting to annuities.



You are trying to use scary scale numbers. It doesn't matter of it's 10 employees or 3,000,000 employees. Properly funded pensions are perfectly fine.

There are a couple of real reasons pensions wained...

• We became a much more mobile society so people weren't in the jobs long enough for pensions, and
• Wall street figured out they could make a shit ton of money by skimming revenue off of an obscure tax law - that being the 401K provision.

The video below explains who Wall Street saw the advantages.

WW

They are scary numbers because they are COMPLETELY FACTUAL. And what does "PROPERLY FUNDED" mean? We can sure count on the Federal Government to be PROPER when it comes to our tax money, right? LOL The FERS sacred cow needs to be changed to what the private sector did to manage the pension beast that only grows bigger with each passing year.

 

[drudge X]

What government employees get free health care? (Outside military service members.)

WW

Who pays for their healthcare?

 

[Harry Dresden]

Who pays for their healthcare?

i pay into mine.....

 

[drudge X]

i pay into mine.....

So do I. Voters should demand all government employees must allocate portion of their earnings, based on earnings, to subsidize healthcare for the people. This country is backward. Other developed countries, government works for the people.

 

[WorldWatcher]

Who pays for their healthcare?

I paid into my coverage as well as paying into Medicare.

WW

 

[EdwinAMartin]

Who pays for their healthcare?

Everybody I know does. I've been paying into Medicare since 1966 . I go see a doctor twice a year, and only one prescription, for Valsartan, which costs a lot less than my premiums.

 

[drudge X]

Everybody I know does. I've been paying into Medicare since 1966 . I go see a doctor twice a year, and only one prescription, for Valsartan, which costs a lot less than my premiums.

That’s the difference. You and I pay out of our pocket and we also pay healthcare coverage for government workers.

 

[JonKoch]

Sigh I guess I have to educate another one. Private Sector companies transitioned away from pension plans to 401K (or similar) retirement plans because of the MASSIVE LIABILITIES that pension plans become.

There are nearly 3 million Federal employees currently and over 1.2 million former Federal employees drawing FERS benefits. Do you see the problem now? You do know that taxpayers pay for the FERS benefits and Federal employee salaries, right? Class dismissed.

Yep, they have planes and yacht's to fund instead

 

[JonKoch]

Who pays for their healthcare?

Federal government workers and the government share the cost of health insurance, with the government typically paying about 70-75% of the total premium. The employee's share is paid through pre-tax deductions. Coverage is largely managed through the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program.