Divorced Retirees Getting Their Supplement Back!
If you are a divorced FERSONIAN, you probably were not happy in 2016 when OPM just randomly started taking some of your Retiree Annuity Supplement (RAS) and giving it to your former spouse when the divorce decree did not award your former spouse any of it.
This was a shift in policy at OPM that just arbitrarily came about one day. Prior to this date, if OPM saw your Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO) or Court Order Acceptable for Processing (COAP) that said a portion of your annuity was awarded to your former spouse, they obviously would divide part of your annuity and give it to your former spouse. If the order was silent on the RAS, they didn’t touch it. They left it alone. Which makes sense. The order didn’t give them authority to take it.
But take it they did. Starting in 2016 and in all divorces that I am aware of since then that awarded some of the annuity, OPM also took it upon themselves to award the former spouse some of the supplement, even if not stated in the order.
(Even OPM OIG disagreed with this ruling! Imagine? Your own legal counsel disagrees with what you’re doing, but you continue anyway????)
Obviously this was contested. The original appellant was an Air Traffic Controller in Colorado named Ronald Moulton. Ronald decided to fight it. Over the years others jumped on board to help in various ways. Dan Jamison, FLEOA, etc.
Frankly, it looked bleak for years. OPM just continued with their arbitrary awarding of divorced FERSONIANS’ supplement every month, even if they had no specified court authority to do so. Meanwhile Ronald kept fighting.
Until November 28, 2023.
When he won.
On 11/28/23, the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) ruled in Ronald’s favor, against OPM. OPM is no longer allowed to take Ronald’s supplement from him and give part of it to his former spouse. In addition, OPM has to refund all of the supplement they have been taking from Ronald since 2016.
You can read the ORDER HERE: DOCKET NO. DE-0841-18-0053-I-1
This order addresses the initial appellant, Ronald Moulton. However, it would seem to me (I ain’t no lawyer) that this is the equivalent of case law at this point, and would obviously apply to all others affected.
NEXT STEPS?
Not sure. This was just ruled on yesterday. I would think OPM now has an absolute mess on their hands. What will they do? Just automatically start analyzing each divorce and pay those back? Will they require each affected person to file a claim? Will they pay back with interest? We just don’t know yet.
Understand that if you have a court order that specifically awards part of your supplement to a former spouse, this new ruling doesn’t help you. This ruling affects those who’s court order is silent on dividing the supplement, but OPM divided it anyway. I want that point to be clear.
Check back here often. I will update this article as I receive other information. I would strongly suggest you guys that are affected by this stay close to Dan Jamison’s website: www.fersguide.com as well as purchase his new 2024 FERSGUIDE hard copy (or Kindle edition) book on Amazon when it is out in the next few weeks. He will have updated information on this.
Huge thanks to Dan and FLEOA for working on this over the years.
And to the original superhero in all of this, Ronald Moulton. It is unknown if he wears an actual cape. But hopefully if he’s around other FERSONIANS, he never has to pay for dinner ever again. He’s saved some of you tens of thousands of dollars.
Stay tuned…….
December 17, 2023 Update
Looks like it’s not over after all.
On 12/17/23, Ron Moulton (the good guy in our story), was contacted by OPM (the bad guys in our story) via email. The email stated, “We are considering whether to appeal the decision in your case to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.”
You can read the full email on Dan Jamison’s site HERE.
Why would OPM continue to defend their practice of taking a retiree’s supplement money without court authority? Your guess is as good as mine. I can offer some suggestions, however:
OPM has realized the magnitude of their mistake. The manhours needed to rectify this is a very daunting prospect to them. They don’t have the resources to do this quickly and efficiently. It could take years for them to complete all of the reviews. They are already behind in processing retirement applications. Adding a review of potentially tens of thousands of divorce cases isn’t exactly an exciting proposition. Perhaps their decision to appeal is to see if there is some other way they can get out of all that work?
No one is sure exactly HOW to go about all of this. Do they try to claw back money from thousands of former spouses? They will probably sue. They didn’t do anything wrong, nor did they have any influence on OPM’s decision to break from precedent and start taking a retiree’s money. The former spouses won’t want to pay back thousands of dollars. OPM will possibly have that fight on their hands.
Maybe it boils down to sheer hubris? Some (but certainly not ALL!) at OPM thought this was the best course of action. Now that their unwise decision has been ruled improper, they have dug in to the point where perhaps their only attempt to save face is to continue to fight?
Several of you have contacted me and said that you have gotten nowhere with OPM since the Moulton decision. That is not surprising. I’m sure many at OPM were not made aware of this. Many may STILL not be aware of this. Have patience. This is going to take some time. Even if OPM were doing the right thing and being cooperative, it would still take some time to go through all of them. The fact that they may not abide by the MSPB decision almost certainly means more delays.
Stay tuned….
January 26, 2024 UPDATE
OPM has chosen not to abide by the MSPB’s decision. That’s discouraging and disappointing behavior from OPM. But you often have the legal right in this country to fight against doing the right thing. OPM has decided to go that direction.
On January 26, 2024, OPM appealed the MSPB’s decision to the United States Court of Appeals. You can read the actual appeal, hosted by Dan Jamison HERE.
You can read in the appeal that OPM expects this to impact 7,000 annuitants for a total of $50 million. And that will be problematic to deal with. I hardly see how that is an argument since they created that problem out of thin air themselves when they adopted this new policy. Had they continued with established policy, this would have never occurred.
As has been the case for years, Dan Jamison is on top of every aspect of this case. You can follow his complete updates HERE.
Stay tuned….