SSA: Phased retirement’s not right for us now

The Social Security Administration has informed its workforce that a phased retirement program will not be implemented at the agency, at least not anytime in the foreseeable future.

“For now, we’ve opted not to pursue a phased retirement program. As we looked at the options and the impact on the agency, to try to launch a program like that at this time, it might destabilize us in ways that we really can’t afford,” Deputy Commissioner for Human Resources Reginald Wells told Federal News Radio’s Lauren Larson during an interview for Ask the CHCO.

Social Security has seen a significant amount of it’s workforce retire in recent years, topping the list of large independent agencies in the last 10 years with 26,586 employees leaving between 2005 and 2014. NASA came in second at 5,628 workers retiring. Roughly 25 percent of the workforce at SSA say they expect to retire within the next five years according to results from the 2014 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey.

Wells said the Reemployed Annuitant Program, which allows retired employees the opportunity to be rehired, gives them flexibility and has helped them tremendously with knowledge transfer and training.

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