Benefits Newsletter: August, 2024

Enrollment Re-Opened

If you wish to make a change to your Federal tax withholding, you must make your change in myPay.  The Federal Tax Withholding page in myPay was recently updated to mirror the newly revised W-4 Federal Tax Form.  You can view the W-4 Tax form instructions on the IRS website

When An Employee Enters Leave Without Pay (LWOP) Status – If an employee will be on LWOP for more than 30 consecutive days, a personnel action must be processed. For guidance, please contact the servicing HR Specialist in Recruitment, Staffing, and Classification.  And because non-pay status can severely impact an employee’s benefits, it is also very important that you notify the servicing Benefits Specialist as soon as you are notified that the employee is going on LWOP.  To find the servicing specialists, visit the 

If you entered a new TSP election into myPay for 2024, you should check myPay to confirm your ele

The Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) is a retirement savings and investment plan for Federal employees and members of the uniformed services.  If you are covered under the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS, FERS-RAE, and FERS-FRAE), contributing to the TSP is extremely important, as the TSP will be a very large part of your retirement income. To learn about the importance of contributing to the TSP, take a few minutes to view the following short, informative videos:

If you have retirement questions and want the convenience of viewing a retirement presentation at your leisure, check out a recorded retirement overview presentation, which was conducted by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). 

If you have social security questions and want the convenience of viewing a presentation at your leisure, view a recorded social security overview presentation, which was conducted by the Social Security Administration (SSA). 

If you have questions, refer them to the SSA at 800-772-1213, during 8:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday.

Periodically, the Retirement & Employee Benefits Branch of the Office of Human Resources (OHR) receives calls from NIH employees who have been contacted by financial planning company representatives by telephone or mailings.  The representatives are asking to meet to discuss benefits and are implying they represent the NIH or the Federal Government in an attempt to target employees as clients.  The OHR Retirement & Employee Benefits Branch administers the Federal benefits program for NIH.  It is not the practice of OHR to contact employees in any manner to sell financ