Thread: Anybody retire 12/31/2021 ? I did and feel like I'm adrift !

Congrats on your retirement shovelhead!

While waiting for replies, there's a bunch of retirement stories in this thread. Maybe some of them will help...

https://www.tsptalk.com/mb/retirement-and-ira-talk/

I retired November 30 and have had no issues so far, though I would like more communications while in this interim period.

Congratulations on your retirement shovelhead! Sorry to hear about your situation, I would be extremely frustrated if that was happening to me. It shouldn't take them over a month to get this straightened out, particularly the AL payout. When I retired under VERA/VSIP in 2016 my VSIP payment was the only thing delayed. I called my agency G-1, who dropped the ball with the funding, to get it corrected.

Have you checked with your former supervisor? Retirement may be an exception since they have centralized most things, but I thought the supervisor had to initiate all SF50s.

Good Luck

(Left last July)
So, for what it's worth, I have no idea what VSIP, G-1, ABC, GRB, or any of that stuff is. I was with HHS and just walked one day simply because I could afford to and I was sick of being treated like garbage by the new narcissistic regime in Management. So in my case, there was no pre-planning to retire. I don't know if that makes a difference or not.
So anyway, YES....the people that handled all that stuff for me at OPM were extremely overwhelmed and backlogged. I estimated 2 months, and started making phone calls when 3 months had gone by without a single word from anyone. They explained that they were backed up and then put me on an Interim Payment Plan so at least I would have something coming in. It was about 70% of what they estimated I would be getting. They also sent a check for all my accumulated Annual Leave. After about another 6 to 8 weeks they finally crunched all the numbers and had the amounts calculated.
So I guess what I'm saying is "Don't Worry". Be Patient. Everything in the Gov. takes 50 times longer to get done than it does in the Real World. It'll happen, but it's just going to take some time.
Hope that helped !!!

Don’t worry, be happy. Everything will work out eventually.

I predict:
1. You will get some money for your leave within the next two to four weeks, and some kind of acknowledgement.
2. Within a month, you should see at least an initial interim partial payment. Coming off Holiday doesn’t help the backlog. But it should come.

3. You should receive a final determination within a short time after that, unless your files are missing paperwork.

I’ve heard it being anywhere from 6 weeks to three times that over the last decade. If something is really screwed up, you’ll have the fun to try and get it fixed, which will take another year. But that’s pretty rare. Most folks have said things worked decent, if you give them enough time.

By the way- congrats on making it to retirement. Do you feel good?


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Originally Posted by James48843

Don’t worry, be happy. Everything will work out eventually.

I predict:
1. You will get some money for your leave within the next two to four weeks, and some kind of acknowledgement.
2. Within a month, you should see at least an initial interim partial payment. Coming off Holiday doesn’t help the backlog. But it should come.

3. You should receive a final determination within a short time after that, unless your files are missing paperwork.

I’ve heard it being anywhere from 6 weeks to three times that over the last decade. If something is really screwed up, you’ll have the fun to try and get it fixed, which will take another year. But that’s pretty rare. Most folks have said things worked decent, if you give them enough time.

By the way- congrats on making it to retirement. Do you feel good?


Sent from my iPhone using TSP Talk Forums

Thanks for the encouragement and congrats ! I feel like I'm not retired until all this is sorted out and done correctly. I feel like I'm still working since I'm on hold all the time, tracking down the right people, asking why I get an LES that says I'm LWOP, but earning annual leave and sick leave still. Opm told me it would be at least until the end of January, but now we are mid way thru Feb and I still haven't heard from a assigned counselor yet. Our G8 tells me via their hotline to ABC, a SF50 still hasnt been cut yet to pay the AL and the VSIP (btw thats all centralized now at ABC and not done by your local agency).
Funny thing, I applied for social security and got my first check two weeks later. Go figure, you'd think Social security would be more backlogged than the Army Benefits Center !

Thanks for the continued follow up! Others will appreciate it down the road when they have to go through this.

Just a general comment regarding dealing with federal agencies. Every American citizen has the right to request what's called a 'congressional inquiry' with their congressional FEDERAL REPRESENTATIVE if you've having problems with a FEDERAL (not state) agency. You call your local FED rep, explain your issue and they will route you to the appropriate person in that office to get all the pertinent info and get the ball rolling in solving your issue.
Example: many years ago my mother's Medicare was 'shut off' inexplicably. Also I noticed that her Social Security check had not been deposited for that month either. I called my local FEDERAL REP, I described in detail what was going on and in less than a week her SS check was deposited and her Medicare coverage was 'turned back on'! Federal agencies respond quickly to a 'congressional inquiry' because Congress controls their funding and they want to keep them happy.

Congrats on the retirement! Fellow 12/31/21 retiree. Still waiting to hear anything from OPM. NFC sent notice they had forwarded my case to OPM 2/1, but silence since then. Did get my AL payout mid-January, so that was good, but would really like to see an interim payment sometime soon...

Congrats bman ! congrats on the AL payout. I still have not heard a word on a counselor or anything. Im still getting an LES that basically says I on LWOP.

Not Benefeds is after me to pay for my vision and dental insurance premiums since there is no "paycheck" deduction.
Not fun right now with all the uncertainty.

I retired 30 NOV 2021. I got my annual leave payout really quick. My interim checks started soon enough, but they are really, really low—nowhere near 60-80% of what my normal pension check should be.

I’m glad that I had some funds put back.


Scott Harrison
Senatobia, MS