SAVE Award 2011 Ideas

OPM should allow Self+1 for Federal Employee Health Benefits (FEHB). Dental and Vision insurance options are able to provide Self+1, so there should be no reason that the health benefits would not be able to as well.

By not allowing a Self+1 option for FEHB both the federal employee and the government pay more for insurance than is needed.

In a time where insurance costs are rising and there are pressures to reduce... more »

Do NOT give free gym memberships to employees as a part of an employment package. Gym-going employees will have a membership regardless of who pays. Others will take it and never use it. If $30-50 is preventing an employee from going to the gym, they don't want to go to the gym.

Raise the retirement age for federal employees to 70. Our jobs are sedentary;our jobs are fortunately, but unusually, secure; and we are well compensated for the work we do. Why should taxpayers be asked to pay up to 80% of the final salary of someone in their mid-to-late 50's just because they worked for the government? That person could realistically live until they are in their 80's or 90's. Three or four decades of... more »

Instead of just having "self" and "family" change the pricing structure to "self", "self +1", "self + 2" and so on for each additional person added to a policy. Private employers have realized the inherent lack of fairness in pricing insurance policies as "self" and "family" only. Insureds without children (including insurable dependents) or with only one or two children are subsidizing those with multiple children/insurable... more »

A cash benefit in lieu of free parking or other valuable transportation benefits should be offered. The Federal government owns a lot of property, and a lot of that property is devoted to car parking. The most efficient way to utilize that space is to have individuals recognize the cost of their actions on that space. By offering Federal employees and others who park at Federal facilities cash in lieu of "free" parking,... more »

Allow current employees to decrease hours and fly new positions with part-time status. There is a huge market of employees willing to work fewer then 40 hours a week. This will allow alternative schedules which will help agencies serve the public with appropiate staffing. Staffing people to meet the needs of the work. Employees work hard to get work accomplished in hours provided and government saves on salary and benefits... more »

A chance to save $650 million per year! The vast majority of active employees can obtain life insurance at far lower rates than what is available through FEGLI. The insurance industry has become much more competitive in recent years, yet working federal employees are not seeing savings. Group rates for a pool with an age distribution similar to the federal workforce should be approximately $150 per year per $100,000 of... more »

The DoD should seriously consider expanding commissary and exchange benefits to DoD civilians and retired DoD Civilians.

These operations support MWR, and with an expanded clientele, they will be able to move more product and negotiate lower prices with suppliers, and thus, expand profits available for MWR purposes.

The military drawdown in the 1990s and the recent MIL to CIV conversions across many DoD agencies and... more »

We have been advised that Telework is both supported and encouraged by the Sec. of DOD and CMDR. in Chief. However, the loophole states that the final decision is left up to supervisors etc. There are other agencies(DLA) doing the exact same work and permitted to Telework, where as we NAVSUPWSS are not,, simply because the supervisors just don't like the idea. I live over an hour away from work and have asked for Telework,,... more »

Currently we are paying benefits in cases where a self employeed individual assigned some or all of his or her annual wages to a spouse. This gets the spouse into insured status and eligible for retirement or disability benefits. Because of the thousands of dollars this can cause a household to gain or lose, the honor system is not a good gate keeper.

Currently deferred wages can be collected and not go against the monthly or annual wage limits for SSA benefits. We could conserve millions if we did not pay benefits for the month the Special Wage payment occurs. It is counterproductive to pay benefits in months where substainal windfalls are recieved.

We use over 10 separate online systems to take care of daily administrative tasks, and I believe that we should combine them all into one website, similar to how Google lets you switch between e-mail, calendar, documents, photos, etc. with a simple mouse click.

Combining all these systems into one system and hosting it on a centralized server would take advantage of economies of scale, greatly reducing the electricity,... more »

Federal agencies need to start planning for a more decentralized work force. Part of this planning should be to carefully evaluate position descriptions with particular attention to job location. My employer recently changed my duty station, obligating $75,000 in relocation funds for me to move ~600 miles. I chose not to move my family or sell my house and instead rented an apartment near my new duty station. This decision... more »

When a veteran changes their address, have that update apply throughout the agency, or even all the government agencies, and not by separate office.. Veterans are not aware that when they call in to update the address that it only changes withing that office or division. This flaw adds to "lost" paperwork and a broken work flow, a huge cost in time and money, and adds to claims processing time. In addition to veterans... more »

Reduce Congress, SES and GS 13 and above's health insurance plans to the level of the rest of the government employees.