Dr Zarkoff Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The best thing to do is go to your RRB office and
> ask (take along a list of all your concerns and
> questions, even ones you might think silly)
> because it's really complex and their publications
> aren't paragons of easily comprehensible English.
> If the rep you get isn't very helpful, ask for
> another one -- you'll probably have to make an
> appointment by calling that 800 number.

Absolutely, if you're not satisfied, ask to speak to another representative. My experience at the office that serves my area has ranged from being served by very courteous, friendly, knowledgeable representatives to unfriendly, in-your-face, rude representatives who have no business being in a customer service job. I have heard other railroaders who are served by the same office express the same opinion.

> The only other thing I can recommend is to retire
> at the beginning of a month, right after you've
> made enough trips to pay for the medical, rather
> than at the end of the month. This is because the
> medical contributions you make this month pay for
> coverage through the end of following month
> (vacation pay in the month also figures in). The
> reason I say this is because I know someone who
> retired on the first of the month, and HR reported
> things to the early retirement program incorrectly
> by one day (the vacation pay counted for that
> month, but HR overlooked that). So the Plan was
> trying to short change him by a month (took about
> 6 weeks to get it straightened out). These medical
> benefits aren't part of the RRB, BTW.

Good advice if you're concerned about a clerical screw-up, unintentionally or even intentionally. The at-retirement-time screw-ups can affect more than the medical benefits about which Dr Zarkoff wrote. My father's retirement experience is a good example of the railroad (Burlington Northern in his case) apparently intentionally screwing the employee. He worked as an engineer out of Spokane after his Memorial Day 1955 move from Wishram and his last trip was returning from Whitefish, Montana on Amtrak #7, arriving in Spokane in the early morning hours of December 21, 1975. I was able to lay off my Vancouver 3rd shift relief switch engine job to make the trip with him and had the joy of running his train for him from Libby to Sandpoint.

As an employee if you didn't get your paper timeslip submitted within a day or two after the end of the half-month pay period the company refused to pay it on time and would hold it until the following half. My father planned to use that company practice to his advantage. He purposely laid off for several trips specifically for the purpose of waiting until very near the end of the first half of January to officially retire so that his earned-in-1975 vacation pay for 1976 would be paid on the first half of January 1976 paycheck to reduce his 1975 tax liability. Having the vacation pay appear on this 1976 earnings would be a definite advantage because his reportable income would be less as a retiree. I don't ever recall seeing him so angry as he was when his second-half December paycheck arrived in the mail the third week in January and it included his 1976 vacation pay.

Regarding medical benefits: Those of you whose spouse is younger than you need to keep in mind that your spouse's medical coverage as an early-retiree medical benefit of your employment will end on the first day of the month in which you turn 65. This is certainly a case where marrying someone older than you pays off!

Because of health conditions we experienced the sad side of this younger spouse situation. My wife of 12,563 days is 25½ months younger than I am and was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease in November 2009 after having exhibited some traits of it for about 1½ years. Having had a part-time job in high school she has been paying into Medicare since its beginning in 1965. She was a PE teacher in junior high school for seven years before we married and afterwards worked as a substitute teacher, church secretary, teacher's assistant for special needs children, and job-sharing teacher for many years. The big mistake (WATCH OUT FOR THIS - those of you who may potentially be affected) was that after about 2001 or so she chose to do substitute teaching only as a PE teacher in the six elementary schools in our school district. Because the PE program has been so reduced and the teachers didn't often need time off there were quarters when she didn't get enough calls to earn the required gross income to qualify as a Social Security quarter.

Due to the changes brought on by the Alzheimer's her last employment (except for one day in October 2009) was a long-term PE sub job in January - June of that year. Prior to her loss of my early-retiree medical benefit coverage last April 1st we applied to Medicare for a medical disability designation for her, based on her own lifetime employment, so that she could obtain medical coverage prior to her own Medicare starting date of 06/01/2013. Unfortunately we were unsuccessful, even after appealing the turn-down, because the government bureaucracy declares that one must have at least 20 qualifying quarters within the ten years immediately preceding date of the disability application. They had no disagreement with the fact that she could no longer perform her occupation but pointed specifically to the bureaucratic rule. Just try buying new health insurance on the open market for an Alzheimer's patient!