What Are The Benefits Of Working For The Federal Government

Benefit # 0: Job Security

According to a recent study, job security increases the job satisfaction of individuals. In other words, individuals prioritize stable jobs and consider them a significant factor in evaluating a job. The good news is that government jobs offer more security than private jobs.

Job security is primarily helpful in uncertain economic times. For instance, private companies terminated more employees during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic than other sectors. On the other hand, the federal government supported their employees and provided them a grant to meet necessary expenses.

Thus, when you work for the federal government, you enjoy a stable income irrespective of the economic conditions.

Early Retirement Benefits Of Working For The Federal Government

If you leave the government before you retire, you still get a deferred retirement pension equal to 0.01*H*Y when youre 62. Depending on your number of years of service, you may be able to claim the deferred retirement pension as early as age 60.

While this post is a general summary of benefits for federal employees, my passion is helping federal employees retire early. Most early retirement/FIRE adherents use the 4% rule to determine when they can retire. . While the 4% rule is beyond the scope of this post, its useful for measuring the value of the pension. If you retired at 57 with 30 years of service and had a salary of $100,000, you could draw a pension of $30,000 per year. This would be equivalent to having an extra portfolio of $750,000 at retirement age.

According to my benefits statement, I contributed $920 last year towards my FERS pension. . However, for calculations sake, lets assume I contributed the same $920 for 30 years. At the end of that time, Id have contributed $27,600 over my career to my pension. And yet its value would be greater than or equal to $750,000 upon retirement calculated by the 4% rule. In my opinion the FERS retirement has got to be the best guaranteed investments on the planet.

Federal Employees’ Thrift Savings Plan

The Thrift Savings Plan is a retirement plan for federal government employees and members of the military.

• Get help with life events that affect your TSP account – What to do if you have personal or career changes or changes to your active duty status.

If you have questions about the TSP or your TSP account, call the participant service line at or TTY at .

Note: There are a number of third-party mobile applications that refer to the Thrift Savings Plan and may ask you for your TSP login information. Providing your information could result in a security risk to your account. If you want to access your TSP account, log in directly at TSP.gov.

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Things To Consider Before Choosing A Federal Vs Private Sector Job

HomeBlog5 Things to Consider Before Choosing a Federal vs. Private Sector Job

If youve ever been stuck between a rock and a hard place, then youll relate to this immediately. I ran across a conversation on LinkedIn under the group known as the Veteran Mentor Network. A retired military member was trying to decide between offers from the civilian and federal sectors and was looking for advice. He had enticing offers from each, and each had their pros and cons.

But the question of public sector vs. private sector jobs, I think, is a familiar oneand one worth discussing. Advice is offered from members of the group, many of whom have been in the very same battle between the federal and civilian worlds. Its a tough decision, as there are benefits to both. And that brings us to the premise of this article.

Well look at 5 things that stood out to me as items you may want to consider as you make the decision to go with a federal position or opt for the private sector. But first, some context to get us started: the original question from that got the ball rolling:

George writes:

George received plenty of advice from folks who had been there, done that. The following is what I took away from the conversation. Some excellent points made by a group of caring and experienced individuals. Here are the 5 things to consider BEFORE you decide between a federal and a private sector job.

Benefits

Location

Job Security

Salary

Job Satisfaction

Health & Life Insurance

Medical health plans and the Federal Employees Group Life Insurance programs are available to all employees. The Federal Employees Health Benefits plan is an employee-employer contribution system and includes fee-for-service, consumer-driven, point-of-service, and HMO options. The costs are reasonable and the coverage excellent.

The federal government also offers comprehensive dental and vision care under the Federal Employees Dental & Vision Insurance Program . Coverage is available from a number of healthcare providers and is competitively priced with standard and high options. The FEGLI program offers low-cost term life insurance for the employee and basic coverage for the family. FEGLI offers up to five times the employees salary in death benefits.

One of the primary benefits of federal employment is the satisfaction you experience from working in a challenging and rewarding job. Positions are available with the level of responsibility and authority that you desire.

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Annual Leave Accrual Rates

* There is potential for a newly appointed or reappointed employee to receive service credit for prior non-Federal service or active duty uniformed service.

** Leave is prorated for part-time employees.

Agile Project Management For Government

As government organizations look to partner with vendors using Agile, some strategic planning and rethinking needs to occur. Agile combines design with development and with the acceptance of the user the products design comes out of the collaboration between its developers and its users. This can require five different shifts in thinking:

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How Your Snap Benefits Work

• Your state will issue benefits each month on a plastic electronic benefits transfer card. Much like a credit or debit card, you can use your EBT card to buy eligible food items. You must buy them from:

What help is available through Medicaid?

Medicaid provides free or low-cost medical benefits to eligible:

• Adults with a low income
• People who are age 65 or over
• People with disabilities

Am I eligible for Medicaid?

Check with your states Medicaid office to see if you or your family members are eligible for benefits. In general, it depends on at least one or a combination of:

• Number of people in your family
• If you are pregnant or have a disability

How do I apply for Medicaid?

There are two ways to apply for Medicaid:

• Contact your state Medicaid agency. You must be a resident of the state where you are applying for benefits.
• Fill out an application through the Health Insurance Marketplace.

Learn About The Types Of Food You Can Buy With Snap Benefits

If youre eligible, you can purchase food using benefits that are issued to you monthly. You can use your SNAP benefits to buy a variety of foods for your household, including:

• Fruits and vegetables
• Breads and cereals

See the United States Department of Agriculture’s list of foods and products you can buy using SNAP benefits.

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Sure Agile Sounds Smart But Does It Work In Government

The U.S. Air Force uses it to modernize its space command and control systems. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services uses it to process its millions of applications from people who wish to study, work, or visit the U.S. The Department of Homeland Security uses it as the preferred approach for all its IT projects. And FEMAs complex IT environment has to support grants management across disparate platforms Agile thinking aids in the effort.

Of course, the methods traditionally used by the federal government may clash with Agile values. Management can be slow to change time-familiar routines. There may also be resistance from teams to this new method of accountability and openness. It may be difficult to teach teams to work in collaboration, with shared tools. The U.S. government can be a huge ship to try to turn. But, as the government leadership moves toward the use of Agile, Public Sector Agility has issued five recommendations for its public-sector use:

Unions Begin Negotiating Work

The federal government has been bargaining with the Public Service Alliance of Canada, the union that represent federal employees.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

At the Public Service Alliance of Canada union, bargaining with the federal government has taken on a different posture lately.

On the table is a perennial demand: raising the wages of hundreds of thousands of public sector workers to keep up with the soaring cost of living, an ask the union has got almost consistently over the years.

But this year, PSAC is fighting hard for something new: enshrining the right to work remotely into the collective agreement, so if workers are forced back to the office even when they believe they can do their jobs from home, they have the formal right to grieve it.

Across the country, as the employer-led push to return to the office grows formally or informally private and public sector unions are weighing into the debate firmly, with the aim of giving their members more leverage in determining how and where they work.

The federal government has left it up to individual department managers to decide how their workers should work, so you have this patchwork system with different standards for different employees. It does not make sense, said Chris Aylward, PSACs national president, in a recent interview with The Globe and Mail.

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Ways An Agency Can Maximize Agile

How might your government agency best use Agile project management to achieve better results?

Be realistic. While Agile can improve the quality of projects, its hardly a magic wand.

Create a roadmap. But it shouldnt be so fixed that it hampers the Agile process. It should simply serve as a lay of the land.

Explain. Be sure that your employees and team members understand that Agile is a way to ensure quality, not just a method for finishing tasks.

Start small. Try it out. Find a smaller project that can be chunked and use the Agile method to get it done.

Family And Medical Leave/paid Parental Leave

Covered Federal employees are entitled to up to 12 weeks of paid time off for the birth, adoption, or foster, of a new child under the Family and Medical Leave Act/Paid Parental Leave . “Covered employees” are Interior Business Center employees who have completed 12 months of Federal service. FMLA eligibility does not normally extend to employees serving under a temporary appointment of 1 year or less or as an intermittent employee.

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Federal Employees Pay Social Security Taxes

All federal employees hired in 1984 or later pay Social Security taxes. This includes the president, the vice president, and members of Congress. It also includes federal judges and most political appointees.

They all pay the same amount of Social Security taxes as people working in the private sector.

Search For Financial Assistance From The Government

Benefits.gov is a free website that can help you determine which types of government assistance you might qualify for. You can also find out how and where to apply.

• Using the Benefit Finder, answer questions about yourself and your needs. Afterwards, you can find out if youre eligible for programs to help you pay for:
• Utilities and other necessities

Check back with Benefits.gov in the future to see if youre eligible for additional benefits. You can report major life events or see if new benefit programs have become available.

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Vacation And Sick Leave

All full time employees receive 10 paid holidays, 13 days of vacation for the first three years service, 20 days of vacation with three to 15 years of service, and 26 days after 15 years. Additionally, 13 sick days are accrued each year regardless of length of service and employees can carry over any sick leave accumulation to the next year. Many federal employees accrue sick leave balances of a year or more during their career. The site administrator had 2100 hours of sick leave, just over one year, accumulated when he retired in 2005. He was able to exchange his sick leave balance for an increase in his annuity payment. Military time counts toward benefits. If you have three years of military service you begin with four weeks of paid vacation. Military service time counts toward civil service retirement. Below you will find a list of all 2016 federal holidays and the days that they fall on.

Read more about the federal employees sick leave benefits and view a conversion chart to see how it accumulates over ones career. Employees that use all of their sick leave for a major illness or childbirth may be able to receive up to 6 weeks of advanced leave for additional coverage. The advanced leave has to be paid back through future sick leave hours earned. There are also leave donation programs available where other federal employees can transfer part of their sick leave balance to another federal employee that has a severe medical condition.

Job Hopping With The Same Employer

The federal government is large. It may take a while to transfer agencies, but you have the ability to find a new boss, without switching employers. So, all of your benefits and tenure stay the same which is key if you want that pension. So, dont have to fill out all of the new employee paperwork, and you dont look like a perpetual job hopper.

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Flex Schedules And Telework

With approved flex schedules, employees can adjust their work timeduring core business hoursaround their personal lives.

With approved telework schedules, most employees can work from their homes or from other approved locations for some portion of their work week. Participation in this program is voluntary and subject to management approval. During the COVID-19 pandemic, telework remains an option for all employees.

Dental And Vision Insurance

Most employees are also eligible for the Federal Employee Dental Vision Insurance Plan . FEDVIP is a separate insurance plan from FEHB. You can sign up for dental plan, a vision plan or both types of insurance. You can choose from several different plans to cover yourself, your spouse and your unmarried, dependent children up to the age of 22.

Learn more about the dental and vision insurance plans.

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Thank All Participants Promptly

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At the conclusion of your panel interview, thank everyone personally, and gather business cards if you didn’t already do so. Then, as you’re sitting in your car post-interview, write down specific highlights from the interview to include in your thank-you notes, which should be sent within 24 hours after completing the panel interview.

You’ll gain the advantage of having the interview fresh in your mind, and will score points for your promptness and attention to professional courtesy.

In summary, a panel interview is nothing to dread, especially since it offers an opportunity to establish rapport with your potential new co-workers and bosses. Arm yourself with a stack of success stories, answers to tough questions, thank-you notes, and a smile, and you’ll be on your way to a job offer.

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This article was originally published at an earlier date.

Long Term Care Program

Long term care insurance helps defray costs when a person needs assistance with daily living. It covers skilled, intermediate and custodial care in the home, an adult day care center, an assisted living facility, a nursing home, or a hospice facility. Some plans such as the Federal Long Term Care Insurance Program also cover home care from informal providers. For more detailed information on Long Term Care, visit the Office of Personnel Managements site at

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