Health Premiums

I have attached a section of the UDRA newsletter which explains the process for claiming the Public Safety Officer Health Premiums deduction on IRS 1040 for the year 2007.
This might be helpful to those who do their own returns. The last page is a letter we received from DC Pay & Retirement saying they would be giving us a letter stating how much we paid for health care, etc. This letter was generated when Rorie Mason was in charge, she has since left DC and a lady named Brown is now in charge.
I plan to talk with Ms. Brown to see if they intend to generate the letter as promised.
Earl

The above was received from a former Agent, Earl Moore. Gee it must be nice being a retired Agent making the big retirement bucks as well as all the other top benefits and then also able to cash in on the UD benefits because you retired under the DC plan. Of course you waited until just before you retired to switch over. Man it's just too damn bad the system doesn't work the other way around but yet we wouldn't want to give the UD anything that would make their retirement lives better. We are still fighting Congress for the pay that we DESERVE but we don't have UD reps working on the Hill to push things through like the Agents do. Yet they work so hard at keeping our bills under the table. Must be nice. Oh yeh, by the way we are one big happy family. :evil:

Gee it must be nice being a retired Agent making the big retirement bucks as well as all the other top benefits and then also able to cash in on the UD benefits because you retired under the DC plan. :evil:


Yes, it is.

By the way - envy and anger are most unbecoming traits.

:roll:

To Guest from another Guest:


Typical! They look down their noses at us and tell outsiders that we just guard buildings, not the president. I was witness to this at Beltsville, lotsa visitors, I replied yes that is true we were just protecting the Blair House when they tried to shoot Truman.
They reap all of our benefits with no recognition toward us. How many times did the news report an incident being handeled by an SS Agent, when it actually was UD. No corrections were ever made to my recollection. I worked with a couple of decent ones in training but they were few and far between.
They wouldn't have had the option of 20 year retirement if it wasn't for the WHP and UD.

To Guest from another Guest:


Typical! They look down their noses at us and tell outsiders that we just guard buildings, not the president. I was witness to this at Beltsville, lotsa visitors, I replied yes that is true we were just protecting the Blair House when they tried to shoot Truman.
They reap all of our benefits with no recognition toward us. How many times did the news report an incident being handeled by an SS Agent, when it actually was UD. No corrections were ever made to my recollection. I worked with a couple of decent ones in training but they were few and far between.
They wouldn't have had the option of 20 year retirement if it wasn't for the WHP and UD.


It's sad but true that every organization has a hierarchy. In the case of the USSS, Agents are regarded as higher up the ladder than uniformed officers, just as in virtually all local police departments detectives are regarded as higher up the ladder than uniformed officers. It's a fact of life.

I'm sure there's nothing that I can say that will make your resentment go away, but let me point out that if you felt that some agents held you in lesser regard you need to remind yourself that each agent is an individual and it is unfair to paint them all with that brush.

Remember that in general the PPD agents considered themselves the "First Team" and thought they were better than the other agents. What they often didn't realize that you don't spend a career in PPD and when they returned to field work they were often regarded as deficient in what the majority of agents did every day - enforce the law.

I once had a PPD agent self-describe himself as "an expert in crowd control" as if this had something to do with law enforcement. He didn't realize that the people at Disney World were also experts in crowd control and that was about what he was fit for after a tour in PPD.

I had a well balanced career with about half the time in investigations and half in protection, and I always held non-agents in high regard - including UD, PST's, Security Specialists and all the rest.

With regard to erroneous news reports about law enforcement incidents, I've seen the press get it wrong ever since I began in law enforcement in the 1960's, and they are never interested in making corrections later. Don't blame that on the agency, blame it on the press.




:)

Mr. F & F B,

You have to understand why we were and still are so bitter and think the way we do. The UD didn't have the option of working in the field so we seldom came in contact with good field Agents. We worked at the WH, FMB, VPR, & Training, all under the watchful eye of SIAC's and above that looked down on us. The only time that we could get away was on out of town details. Even then who did we have to answer to? It was either PPD or VPPD not UD officials and not the Chief. Speaking of the Chief, he had no power at all, just a figurehead. He was just a puppet of the SS and that is sad. At least in regular Police Departments like you mentioned the Chief was still in charge no matter if it was uniformed officers or detectives. So unless you have walked a mile in UD's shoes, you would have no clue how we were treated. I don't think we paint all Agents with the same brush but from what we had to work with, at times there was only one brush.

[RETUD]

WOW I haven't been here in a while. Alot of good points on both sides. I must say though to all the UD Guests and members. If you are trying to win over the Agents or even prove the reasons for our disagreements, forget it, you are speaking to deaf ears. Keep the faith.

WOW I haven't been here in a while. Alot of good points on both sides. I must say though to all the UD Guests and members. If you are trying to win over the Agents or even prove the reasons for our disagreements, forget it, you are speaking to deaf ears. Keep the faith.

The same could be said to Agents who might try to convince the UD members not to paint all Agents with the same brush.

Alas........................

[RETUD]

F & F B,
Yes I understand and I get it but I think I can speak for most UD members. We do not paint every Agent with the same brush, just the ones that had a lot to do with our career and future. Please let me try to plead our case and then you can tell me if you think it was right or wrong. I will just pick one because there are so many.

In UD history it was always law that if the active UD got a pay raise the retired UD also got the very same pay raise, no matter if it was 2% or 30%. Now several years ago (and please I can't quote dates and numbers without going back in tons of paperwork, so I will be brief) the UD was in line for a huge pay raise (approx. anywhere from 25-40%). Well when this came close to passing, with the stroke of a pen and the help of the Hill the Director changed the law and had the retired UD members removed from this pay raise. Well this sent the retirees into orbit. At the time I was still active. Then the UDRA started the ball rolling to get attorneys to fight this. Well this went on for years and I couldn't wait any longer and had to retire. There have been so many bills before Congress I can't even remember all the numbers and it is still going on today. I have been retired for over nine years and can't tell you how much money I have sent the UDRA for attorney and lobbyist fees. We get shot down every time on something that we deserve and was law. Now I know that if the SS had the power to cut us out of this pay than they also have the power to add us on it again with the stroke of a pen. If we had the full backing of the SS Director we would have our money due to us by now.

So I ask you do you think that is right. That is just one a many situations that the SS kept the UD back. I could also give you names of all the Agents that had a hand in keeping us down but I won't, again there are way too many.

So my friend I guess we will just have to agree to disagree on the relationship between Agents and the UD. Again I will say that we don't paint every Agent with the same brush just the large number of them that s*****d us.

the Director changed the law and had the retired UD members removed from this pay raise.

So I ask you do you think that is right. That is just one a many situations that the SS kept the UD back. I could also give you names of all the Agents that had a hand in keeping us down but I won't, again there are way too many.

So my friend I guess we will just have to agree to disagree on the relationship between Agents and the UD. Again I will say that we don't paint every Agent with the same brush just the large number of them that s*****d us.


I don't know the time frame of the incident you mention, but I wonder if that was the same Director who refused to grant LEAP pay to retired Agents, or who refused to grant locality pay to retired agents.

We had to sue in two separate suits for the LEAP pay and the locality pay, winning both.

More recently other agents have had to sue for FLSA violations by the Service - another win.

My point is that UD is not alone in not receiving all that they are entitled to from management.

Good luck on your suit. Don't give up.

:)

[RETUD]

Touche my friend and thank you. We won't give up the fight.