To say the world’s largest defined benefit plan’s transition to a new recordkeeper has been a bit bumpy would be an understatement.
In the month since the June 1 transition to Accenture Federal Services, many participants in the federal government’s Thrift Savings Plan have experienced headaches in the form of account log-in issues, extremely long customer service wait times to the ThriftLine call center and a number of transaction difficulties.
The long-planned changes which many TSP participants have been seeking are outlined in a 133 page report from the FRTIB that was published in the Federal Register. It is part of a major upgrade to the TSP’s legacy operating platform that, in addition to adding the ability to invest a portion of their retirement savings in more than 5,000 mutual funds also adds a range of new online services, security protections and a mobile app.
But despite “extensive” testing of the new platform before the transition at the beginning of June, the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board and the new recordkeeper did not anticipate the unprecedented call volume from the pool of 6.6 million federal employees who utilize the Thrift Savings Plan.
The rocky transition has drawn the attention of lawmakers, including Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), who is looking for answers and solutions to the problems from Ravindra Deo, the Executive Director of the FRTIB.
Norton met with Deo to discuss the various problems, and as a result Deo committed to sending weekly progress reports to Norton. The lawmaker indicated the possibility of seeking a House hearing if improvements are not made quickly.
“The Thrift Savings Plan is so essential to federal employees and retirees that the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board must immediately fix the problems with the new online system,” Norton said in a June 27 statement. “That is why I have requested an urgent phone call with the Executive Director of FRTIB. Constituents have told me of phone wait times of over nine hours, of disconnected calls, and of missing and incorrect information in their accounts. I appreciate my constituents bringing these consequential concerns to my attention, and I will continue to work to fix these issues.”
Norton sent a letter to FRTIB on June 13, 2022, raising the initial concerns she had heard from constituents about the new system. FRTIB responded on June 17, 2022. Norton requested the meeting after hearing from constituents about additional problems they are having with the new system, including information not being properly transferred and taxes not being properly allocated.
The problems were also a focus of the FRTIB’s regular monthly meeting on June 28.
“We’re well aware of the challenges that we’re having around the call center, that being the biggest challenge that we’re experiencing today, and we’re working hard to return to our customary excellent services,” director of the office of participant services Tee Ramos said during the meeting.
Ramos added that the ThriftLine call center is now staffed with more than 800 representatives, an increase of 66% and the most it has ever had. And the board planned to add another 100 representatives immediately to help resolve the issues.
Further, a webinar for TSP participants explaining changes resulting from the transition is expected to be available in July.
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