Railroad Retirement: Enhancing Portability Would Raise Cost and Policy Concerns

摘要

The Railroad Retirement program was established in 1937 and is among the older211u001eretirement programs for private sector employees in the United States. In 211u001eaccordance with your request that we study the portability of Railroad Retirement 211u001ebeneifts, our objectives were to determine: which, if any, Railroad Retirement 211u001ebenefits are portable; what changes could be made to the Federal Employees' 211u001eRetirement System (FERS) that might enhance the portability of Railroad 211u001eRetirement benefits into FERS for former railroad employees who secure federal 211u001ecivilian employment and the cost and administrative implications of those changes 211u001efor FERS and whether such changes could be made cost-neutral to FERS; and what 211u001echanges could be made to Railroad Retirement that might enhance the overall 211u001eportability of its retirement benefits and what are the cost and administrative 211u001eimplications of these changes for Railroad Retirement.