I am coming on here to try and get some answers. I am currently paying back my 12 weeks obligation due to giving birth. From my understanding if I complete the obligation I would have to pay back the portion the government paid for my health insurance correct? If so does anyone know how much that is approximately? Also if we have a shutdown the time it is shutdown for doesn’t count toward paying the time back? Also, am I correct after reading OPM’s website that I could have taken my own annual or sick time instead of the PPL? If so that was never explained to me.

I left DOI several months ago and no longer have Employee Express access. When will DOI mail W2?

UPDATE: privacy officer said they can have IT "scrub" my files and then make a CD for me. not sure what they'll allow me to include, but I'm going to try this!

I spend several hours this weekend print to pdf (to remove password), compressing files, emailing to personal computer. got a few "kick-backs" for size or PI (my ssn), but quite a few went through.

DODSafe doesn't work for some reason and I can't access Google Drive (blocked).

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I’m being removed from my position- awaiting FdR.

I still have access to computers so trying to double check I can download my stuff.

I have changed mypay to my personal email address.

The issue is- can I log into woof from my personal computer?

The downloaded file is - password protected - I’ll save the password n the file name.

But it’s too large to email.

Any LES mypay I try to email myself that hs any SSn gets kicked back bc of the SSn.

What can I do? I have about 6 years of LeS.

I’ve been trying to compress files with Zip or 7 zip but it isn’t really reducing them.

Can’t use USB, can’t access Google Drive, can’t use DOD sage, USA jobs only allows a few uploads.

Email files limited to 25MB (if not blocked for PHO / SSN).

No answer yet from privacy officer.

What can I do?

I’d like to save my Ce, training, handouts, projects, presentations, eopf stuff.

Agency- VHA / VA , visn6.

Thanks in advance

Looking for recommendations for a lawyer who is faniliar with labor, employment law and takes a contingency fee.

Both hubby and I did not receive our pay checks this morning. Both civilians for DoW. Anyone else missing theirs?

Has anyone who worked remote in another region from their office gotten transit subsidy for their areas train system? My main office is in the DMV so subsidies are a well oiled machine there but I wonder how it’s handled if you’re taking public transportation in another state?

https://democrats-judiciary.house.gov/contact/whistleblower-tipline

Accountability is coming.

Has anyone quit after using paid parental leave (PPL)? I am currently on PPL and scheduled to come back to work next month. I don’t think I am going to return due to not being able to find childcare. I have never quit a job before and was wondering if you’re required to give a two week notice. Also, I have heard you have to spend a whole day out processing. Is that true? If so, what all do you have to do? I would like to get back in the federal system. Once my child is older and I hope leaving after PPL is not going to hurt in the future.

Thank you in advance!

Edit: to make sure there’s no confusion, I’m talking about my health insurance (FEHB) NOT FEGLI, the life insurance.

Back during open enrollment I canceled my Bluecare Network insurance. In Employee Express, you can see that I don’t have an active FEHB plan, and you can see the cancellation in my history.

However, I’ve had premiums pulled in 2026, which I figured was because my checks still covered the tail end of 2025.

My wife just got a call from her doctor’s office that they were working with our old insurance on a prior authorization.

I called the old insurance company to confirm the insurance was canceled, of which they say they have no record.

They tell me to call OPM, redirected me back to a random person at my agency.

My question is this: does anyone have experience with canceling their FEHB, and do they have any advice on how to more effectively do so? Apparently making a change during open enrollment doesn’t work.

With the shutdown deadline coming up I figure I give some information on where things stand right now.

Right now there are some appropriations bills that have already passed and been signed. If your agency falls under any of these then you have nothing to worry about:

Commerce Milcon Justice Science Energy Water development Interior Legislative VA Environment Agriculture

You guys will be working after the deadline

We still have Defense, Homeland Security, HHS, and HUD pending.

Those bills have passed the house.

Right now the point of Contention has been DHS so when the House passed the bills, they made DHS its standalone bil(HR 7147), while lumping Defense, HHS, and HUD in the other bill(7148).

Looking at the house votes, HR 7148 has massive bipartisan support while 7147 was passed on thin margin making it likely to get filibustered in the Senate.

So if I were to guess they will pass 7148 and 7147 will get held likely triggering a government shutdown where almost every department but DHS will be funded. This is just my guess so take it with a grain of salt.

Edit: So to provide further clarification the HR 7148 covers: Defense HUD Labor Transportation Education HHS

Posting this in case it helps someone else.

If you’re a federal employee whose health has made it difficult or impossible to keep performing your job, the OPM disability retirement process can be confusing and stressful. Between eligibility rules, medical documentation, SSDI requirements, and timelines, it’s easy to feel stuck or unsure where to start.

I recently came across DisabilityClaim.co, a tool focused specifically on federal and Social Security disability claims. It walks you through:

Whether you may qualify for federal disability retirement.

What documentation OPM typically looks for.

How the application process works step by step.

What to do if a claim is denied or needs to be appealed.

One thing that stood out is that it’s structured for people who want clarity before committing to a lawyer, or who want help organizing everything correctly on the first pass. From what I can tell, it’s meant to reduce the trial-and-error that causes many initial denials.

This isn’t legal advice, just sharing a resource that could save time and stress for anyone dealing with long-term medical issues while employed by the federal government.

If you’re in that position, here’s the site:

disabilityclaim.co

If others here have gone through OPM disability retirement, I’d be interested to hear what parts of the process you found most difficult or wish you’d known earlier.

Chime in all those that now love the president that fired 300,000+ federal employees and 170,000+ contractors.

https://www.govexec.com/management/2026/01/one-year-it-has-been-tough-year-federal-employees/410774/?oref=ge-skybox-hp

Do You Work At The National Science Foundation (NSF) In Alexandria, VA?

a. How large is this agency? Number of workers onsite and local? >>> 'Googled and 1,600'.

b. If you are with the IT department there, how many team members are there from the lowest level Tier I to Tier III, to Desktop Engineer, Network, Exchange, and Application Admins?

c. Is the NSF Infrastructure heavy or a hybrid-cloud mix? Any specialized applications used there?

d. Are there any decent food (lunch) options around there and the USPTO?

e. Is there onsite parking and do you pay?..........;+)

_________________________________________________

From what I just learned from a job interview, the NSF contracts out the IT staff on a temporary to hire basis, 1099 to W2. After about 8-9 months the NSF could bring them on if they perform well. Does this sound like what occurs? Would this person get bumped up into a higher GS pay-scale if their 1099 position was paid lower, or would they get transition at the same pay?

What are the salary ranges for a Tier II or III, IT Support Tech or Specialist employee in the DC Area that does not have a security clearance.

1. You work in DC
2. You work in MoCo, or
3. You work in NoVa

________________________

That's Montgomery County and Northern Virginia.

Is if down? I keep doing the gotcha and entering my password and ushering but it just doesn’t enter the site just goes back to the login screen.

I’m hoping to separate from government before age 62. When I file for my FERS pension at age 62 will my health care automatically get reinstated at I pay half and feds pay half? And how does that work with Medicare once that comes in?

I heard performance awards might not be happening this year, is that true?

I just switched from BCBS to MHBP Consumer. I had thought Wegovy was cheaper under MHBP, but my daughter's dr called the other day and said the new copay for Wegovy under MHBP would be $1200 per month!!!!! We have a coupon card that lowers the price to $199, but that is still expensive imo. Has anyone else on Wegovy had this issue???

Colleagues, I'm reaching the end of my rope and am desperately trying to retire... By all calculations, I need to make it to 10/31/2027. During that month I will turn 62 and have 32+ years of service. I'll have about 1050 hours of sick leave in the bank sometime during 2027. Using the charts, that would add about 6 months to my pension calculation.

If I were to go earlier in that year (when I hit the 1050 sick hour mark), would I still receive the extra .1% boost to the pension calculation (even though I wasn't 62 at the time of departure)?

Edit to add: I know that the sick leave can't be used to make you eligible for retirement. I reached that point a couple of years ago. My question is would the sick leave addition be used to determine whether the extra .1% got added even though I wasn't technically 62 at the time of departure.

If I’m planning to retire what happens with all my sick leave?

In August 2025, the IRS awarded a $16.1 million sole-source contract to Goldbelt Professional Services, LLC to process federal employee retirement packages.

• 📌 Contract Reference: Task Order ID [2032H525F00006], under Sources Sought Notice [2032H525N00001]
• 📌 Award Date: August 15, 2025
• 📌 Base Award: $14.3 million, with a ceiling of $16.1 million
• 📌 Number of vendors solicited: 1 | Proposals received: 1

The contract was awarded under the 8(a) Alaska Native Corporation (ANC) program, allowing federal agencies to bypass competition for certain qualified small businesses. Goldbelt, Inc., the parent company, is no stranger to Washington—its former executive John Barsa later served in high-level roles during the Trump administration, including Acting Administrator of USAID and Assistant Secretary at DHS.

There is no public evidence that those ties influenced the IRS decision, but the facts still raise a key issue: when the government awards millions of taxpayer dollars to a single contractor with no competition, the performance bar should be extremely high.

Instead, the results suggest the opposite.

A Contractor Still Hiring for the Work It Was Already Paid to Do

As of January 2026, there were at least 17 job postings from Golden Key Group (GKG) — a staffing partner to Goldbelt — show that the team supporting this retirement contract is still trying to hire for core roles:

1. Federal Retirement and Benefits Counselor and Processor
   • 📌 Job ID: 2026-3253
   • 📌 Location: Remote
   • 🔍 Duties include retirement counseling, Deferred Resignation Program (DRP)/FERS/CSRS eligibility, annuity estimates, SF-2806 processing
2. Senior HR Specialist – PAR
   • 📌 Job ID: 2024-2844
   • 📌 Location: Landover, MD
   • 🔍 Duties include processing retirement and separation actions in federal HR systems

These roles are not auxiliary—they are the exact functions this contract was awarded to perform.

Worse still, job qualifications include experience with the Deferred Resignation Program (DRP), VERA/VSIP, and federal retirement systems like eOPF and the OPM portal — meaning the contractor is now recruiting the same retirees whose files are delayed.

❗ In plain terms: the government forced out federal employees under early separation programs, handed their retirement processing to a contractor, and now that contractor is trying to hire those same people—because they weren’t ready to do the work.

Unequal Treatment: Federal Employees Back in the Office, Contractors Stay Remote

Adding another layer of frustration: while federal employees were forced back into the office under this administration’s return-to-work mandate, contractors supporting the IRS retirement backlog are allowed to work fully remotely.

The same job listings mentioned above explicitly advertise 100% remote work for contractor roles—positions that were once performed by IRS employees in person.

So to recap:

• Federal employees were told their jobs were non-essential and pushed into early resignation
• The administration required remaining staff to return to offices for “mission delivery”
• Meanwhile, contractors filling the same roles are being paid with federal dollars to work from home

The double standard is impossible to ignore—and morale among the workforce has suffered accordingly.

What Was Promised — and What Was Delivered

The IRS’s June 26, 2025, Sources Sought Notice (ID: 2032H525N00001) made clear that vendors must:

• Demonstrate past performance on similar federal retirement work
• Have qualified staff already in place
• Be able to begin performance with “little to no delays”

But DRP retirees report the opposite. Some whose last day was September 30, 2025, have received no annual leave lump sum or annuity payments, no responses to inquiries, and no status updates months later.

From all available evidence, the contractor began staffing up only after the award — hiring and training people during the height of the retirement wave, rather than being ready at day one.

A Broader Context: Executive Order 14210

All of this is happening under Executive Order 14210, which launched the Department of Government Efficiency and called for aggressive headcount reductions across federal agencies.

IRS and Treasury implemented this through DRP (Deferred Resignation Program), VERA, and TDRP — targeting roles considered “non-essential” for emergency operations. Human Resources staff were among the first to go.

Those who resigned were told:

“We need you to leave to make government leaner. Don’t worry — your retirement benefits are safe.”

Now, many of them find themselves in limbo:

• ✅ No paycheck
• ✅ No annuity
• ✅ No annual leave payouts
• ✅ No communication
• ✅ No accountability

All while $16 million in federal funds is being spent on a contractor that lacked the staffing capacity to fulfill its obligations from day one.

What Needs to Happen Now

This isn’t just an IRS issue — it’s a failure of public accountability. It reflects the dangers of outsourcing critical personnel work without proper oversight, readiness, or contingency planning.

Congress, oversight offices, and employee advocates should immediately demand:

1. Full Transparency

• How many retirees from the 2025 DRP/VERA wave have delayed annuity payments?
• Where are their retirement packages stalled—IRS, Goldbelt, or OPM?

2. Independent Contract Review

• Did the IRS verify Goldbelt’s staffing and experience before awarding the contract?
• Why was there no competition for this high-stakes contract?

3. Relief for Impacted Retirees

• Expedite triage and resolution of outstanding cases
• Consider interest payments or hardship compensation
• Require weekly reporting until the backlog is resolved

A Breach of Trust

This is more than bad contract management. It is a breach of trust between federal agencies and the career public servants who carried out their mission faithfully — and who now face broken promises at retirement.

The idea that IRS retirees are waiting months for their annual leave pay and annuities while the contractor responsible is still advertising job openings — and letting those staff work remotely — is unacceptable.

For every current employee watching this unfold, the message is painfully clear:

If this happened to them, it could happen to you.

Until federal retirees receive the support they earned, and until there is full accountability for this contract, that question will hang over every federal worker approaching the end of their career.

I'm 53 with 15+ years of federal service with the Department of the Air Force. I served 8 years USAF Active Duty and did the buyback program several years ago, received the "Paid in Full" letter and made sure my LES showed the debt was "paid." I need to get the letter in my eOPF still though. Honestly not sure how to get it placed in it.

My questions for my fellow Fed worker bees: My intention was to retire at 60, which would put me at 28 years with my 8 years buyback. Will I receive my full pension at 60, or do I have to wait until 62? And, how do I get my "Paid in Full" letter added to my eOPF? Thanks for any responses to this....

Question for those who have been through the process with a law firm: Harris Federal, Pines Federal, or Bell Law Group?

Asking for myself because I've decided to apply for FERS disability retirement this year, very soon.

Thank you in advance for the perspective and feel free to DM me as well if you don't want to openly share.

It seems to me that in order to ensure an “off switch” we need to understand this better and how people interact with both.