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OWCP Retirement Analysis

Decent Essays

Amending federal tax laws is imperative in order to align DOL OWCP compensation payments to reflect actual wages and to provide for retirement contributions.

The design of workers’ compensation is that of a wage replacement system, and not a retirement supplement system. Yet, while receiving workers’ compensation benefits, federal employees do not contribute to their retirement account, thereby impeding their ability to develop a retirement strategy for financial support during their retirement years. Given that currently workers’ in receipt of compensation benefits are not contributing towards a retirement pension makes it infeasible to ask or require these workers’ to switch from the receipt of workers’ compensation benefits to collecting their OPM retirement upon reaching retirement age without adjusting the formula for calculating the retirement benefits. …show more content…

Our analysis revealed that 81% of the USPS employees were age 55 or older. Compensation payments made on the behalf of the USPS to employees of age 55 or older was $32,895,270. These figures support the theory that OWCP has become a Quai-retirement system, which is in direct opposition to their designation to provide interim wage replacement and restoring injured workers to gainful work as permitted by the effects of the injury. The figures also demonstration the necessity to have retirement or OPM disability as a viable option once an employee reaches their minimum age for retirement or when OWCP is unable to restore an injured workers to gainful

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