Inadvertent Effects of Change: Old Sick Feds and a Haircut

Sen. Collins has gotten some press over the issue of Federal employees who are getting workers comp payments under the Federal Employees Benefit Act, even though they're old, I mean really old, I mean older thn me even (a few). I haven't seen any discussion but I'd guess this is a side effect of the change many years ago eliminating mandatory retirement (used to be 70 if I recall). The issue is whether the employee is able to go back to work. It's obvious to us that no Federal employee is going to return to the office when he's 90, so he ought to be involuntarily retired and given his pension.  Of course, when I say it's obvious, it's not really obvious, because there are odd ball employees so dedicated they continue to work long after anyone else would retire.

Which brings me to my haircut.  Got one today.  A phone call came in from the shop owner saying he'd be back by 3:30.  My barber explained that the owner's mother, living in WV, had health issues.  She was 93, worked all her life in the local school cafeteria until they retired her at the age of 85, then went back on a volunteer basis.  While she's not a federal employee, she illustrates my point.  As does Bruno Mangum, the FSA employee who died in 2007 at the age of 90.

Having written all this, it makes sense to kick employees off the workers comp rolls when they're eligible for full retirement benefits.  And remembering an article in the NYTimes a while back on abuses of the workman's comp rules (Long Island RR maybe? I forget), it makes sense to audit the enforcement of the rules because they're easily abused.