Federal Daily - November 17, 2009

USPS Looks on the Bright Side

First the bad news: the Postal Service on Nov. 16 filed its 2009 fiscal year-end financial results showing a net loss of $3.8 billion for the year—despite cost-cutting that produced an estimated $6 billion in savings, and a $4 billion reduction in mandatory payments for retiree health benefits.

Now the good news: Almost all of the customers who use the hard-pressed organization give it high marks for service. USPS announced last week that 94 percent of customers rated the Postal Service “excellent, very good or good” during a survey period running from July 1 to Sept. 30.

Postmaster General John Potter said the rating was the highest in four years, and comes off five consecutive quarters in which USPS service earned a 93 percent rating.

But postal workers won’t have long to enjoy the glowing reviews.

USPS expects to files its 2010 financial plan later this week. That plan estimates “a revenue decline of $2.2 billion, a net loss of $7.8 billion, cost reductions of more than $3.5 billion and a reduction in mail volume of 11 billion pieces for the year,” USPS said.

To see more, go to: www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/2009/pr09_096.htm, and www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/2009/pr09_098.htm.

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VA’s DIC Beneficiary Payments Higher Than Those of Civilian Survivors

Department of Veterans Affairs Dependency and Indemnity Compensation program beneficiaries receive monthly payments that are generally higher than payments provided through federal retirement programs to survivors of comparably paid federal employees, according to a Government Accountability Office report.

The DIC program provides monthly payments to the survivors of those who die as a result of a service-connected disability or while on active duty in the military. In Fiscal Year 2008, VA paid more than $4.7 billion to about 354,000 surviving spouses.

Survivors receive basic DIC payments at a generally flat rate, currently $1,154 per month, regardless of their spouse’s military rank, GAO said. And that flat rate generates some inequities. For example, a $1,154 monthly flat-rate payment replaces less of an officer’s military pay than it does the pay of servicemembers in lower pay grades. A Navy lieutenant earned about $6,000 per month in 2009. If the lieutenant died on active duty, the surviving spouse would receive the basic DIC benefit—$1,154—which replaces only about 19 percent of the lieutenant’s pay, GAO said.

GAO also found that the amount paid by DIC to survivors of disabled vets and servicemembers is generally higher than the amount paid by Civil Service Retirement System and Federal Employees Retirement System programs to survivors of comparably paid federal employees, the report said.

Under DIC, for example, the surviving spouse of an Army sergeant who was severely disabled for a prolonged period before dying in 2009 would be eligible for a monthly payment of $1,400 (the example includes an extra $246 assuming the sergeant was totally disabled for eight years). In contrast, the surviving spouse of a federal employee, also disabled before his or her death and with the same years of experience and salary as the Army sergeant, would be eligible for a monthly CSRS payment of $606, said the report.

To see more, go to: www.gao.gov/highlights/d1062high.pdf

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