Federal employees and retirees covered by the Civil Service Retirement System now can use a faster appeals process when the Office of Personnel Management rules against them in pension benefits disputes, OPM announced last week.
If OPM rules unfavorably in a pension case, for example in a dispute over how much an annuitant should be receiving, employees and retirees under CSRS can now appeal directly to the Merit Systems Protection Board. Previously only people covered by the Federal Employees Retirement System could directly appeal to the board.
The new rule does not affect the way the board conducts its reviews.
Cases in which people can use the direct appeal process include those involving disputes over:
- whether a former job earned retirement credit from a federal retirement system;
- the amount of service to be credited; and
- annuity computations.
The final rule was published in the April 28 Federal Register.
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