Letter to the Editor

This is in response to a recent letter from Mr. Robert Benson critical of the results of the employee calculator at FirstGov for Seniors (www.seniors.gov).

Mr. Benson claimed that he ran a "test" case that produced a Federal Employees Retirement System supplement of $10,000, which he said could not possibly be correct. Either he is unfamiliar with the model, or he does not know how a supplement is calculated.

In the future, when there are highly compensated federal employees who have at least 30 years of service under FERS, the supplement can actually be higher than $10,000. Example: The annual supplement would be more than $12,000 for an employee with 34 years of service who will receive Social Security of $14,531 at age 62 (85 percent of $14,531 is $12,540).

Bottom line: If a user enters realistic data, the model produces realistic answers.

Claudia Tewell
Marketing associate
Economic Systems Inc.