Budget Cuts are Delaying USPS and Federal Retiree Payments

The U.S. Postal Service's (USPS) most successful efficiency tactic in recent years has been reducing its workforce by offering Voluntary Early Retirement (VERA). But reports of disgraceful nine-month waits to start receiving full retirement checks discouraged many other employees from taking the offers.

The federal Office of Personnel Management in the first quarter of this year, processed more applications than ever in recent memory.

If normal funding is restored when the new fiscal year begins in October, the agency estimates it can whittle the backlog down to target levels by March 2014. But that’s a big if.