CAPPS Agenda - November 20, 2002

I. Welcome (Jody Nyers) -

Meeting location during evacuation drill is on the Mall near the American History Building.

II. Customer Briefing Information (Margaret Prell) -

Users are strongly encouraged to pre-register as the briefing is in two weeks. This will make it easier to provide name tags and "goodie" bags with other information for each attendee. We currently have 70+ individuals registered, but we are missing several of the regulars. Margaret took a few minutes to review the agenda that was distributed to CAPPS attendees. PKI is on the agenda in the morning and afternoon for Wednesday and the afternoon session will provide more detail. Please send an e-mail to Sheila Tabb if your agency will be sending someone to the Wednesday pm session. (Sheila is also the contact for conference attendance in general).

A. Cheryl Ruf (USDA) requested that the agenda be provided electronically. Margaret indicated the Doug Womac will be mailing that shortly and that it will be available on the web this afternoon.

B. Dora Lee Rosendorf (TR) inquired about why they needed the names. Margaret reiterated that knowing in advance facilitates the sign-in process and ensures that information is ready for the attendee when s/he arrives.

III. W-2 Testing (John McCrosson & Debbie Tatum) -

Next week QA testing will be run, loaded, and printed (on blue paper) and mailed to the agency contacts. The mail-outs will include W-2's, the transmittal letter, and an inquiry template to be used for the W-2 Help desk calls. The period of testing will run from December 2nd - December 13th. The number for the W-2 Help desk is (504) 255-4448. All calls will be routed through this number. Fixes will be done in PP-23. The corrected W-2's will be faxed back to the agencies.

IV. Military LWOP & FEHB (Jo Bonner) -

A. PeSB (personnel) will do a sweep to implement the Current Employment Status (CES) code of "9" in PP-24. Effective in PP-24 the MIL remark will be required on all LWOP-US actions for employees who are activated for a campaign, but the agency is NOT paying the FEHB share of the FEHB premiums. PaSB (payroll) changes are scheduled for PP-03, 2003.

B. Because PaSB will not be updated until PP-03, agencies will need to TINQ the system for all employees with a CES of "9" from PP-24, 2002, through PP-03, 2003, regardless of whether a T&A is submitted.

C. Detailed information on what is being done and the action(s) that need to be taken by the clients for before, during, and after the changes are in the handout provided at the CAPPS meeting and will be sent out to CAPPS via GroupWise for those not in attendance.

D. One other tidbit that Jo mentioned was that agencies need to counsel employees on how they pay this back regarding the pre-tax situation. The LWOP-US payment of FEHB is no different than any other LWOP payment of FEHB by the employee. If the employee elects to write a check they will not receive the pre-tax benefits. If the bill is paid via payroll deduction, they do get the pre-tax benefit.

E. Questions & Answers, Comments & Replies:

1. Q: Dora Lee Rosendorf (TR) - What about cases where T&As were submitted and the employee paid his/her share but now the bureaus are going to pay? A: PPSPS spoke to Stu Morlier on that subject and it will not be an issue. Louise Richard added that pre-tax is taken into consideration when adjustments are made based upon the submission of AD-343s.
   
   
2. Q: Client - Debiting the accounts, what does that mean? A: Jo - When NFC process PAYE for an employee on other types of LWOP we debit the agency account, pay the premiums to the carrier, and bill the employee. After the PP-24 sweep, when we run PAYE that will happen to employees on LWOP-US with a CES of "9".
   
   
3. Q: Dora Lee Rosendorf (TR) - Agencies are only entitled to pay for a certain number of months. Is NFC is going to take care of that for us?. A: Jo - No. The employee is entitled to carry the coverage for up to 18 months as with any other LWOP. The agency is authorized to pay for 18 months. As with employees on other types of LWOP, the agency is required to terminate the FEHB coverage at the end of that period. We are not changing that process. Agencies will still be required to do this.
   
   
4. Q: Lucy McCabe (FDIC) - In reviewing the chart on page 2 - page 2 of the table, page 3 of the handout - the very last column indicates that neither the agency nor the employee share has been paid. Will we always have to do a 343? A: Jo - No, this process is necessary to clean up the database from the time the employee went on LWOP-US until the system is fixed in pp 03. After PP-03 PASB changes will be made and we (NFC) will automatically debit the agency for the employee and agency share of FEHB premiums.
   
   
5. Q: Dora Lee - What about if the agency has not done this timely? Or maybe the proper 2nd auth was not included? A: Jo - In these cases you will need to follow the table we issued. Late processing on the HR side can result in an AD-343 just like on other non military issues. Glenda added: If you didn't enter the document correctly, then that's not a programming problem, it's a user problem.
   
   
6. Q: Cheryl Ruf (USDA) - We have done some AD-343's and submitted them to NFC South. A contact from Billings & Collection Branch (BCB) responded saying that the agency had to submit an uncollectible fund. What is that? A: Neither PPSPS nor NFC South participants were familiar with that terminology. We will check with Steve Loeffelholz to follow-up on this. C: Cheryl's concern is that USDA has had a case that has been ongoing since June and it is still not resolved. Accounting was provided on the AD-343. R: Again, PPSPS is not in a position to respond to that issue. Our prior conversations with Steve and his staff indicated the terminology should state "waive" in lieu of "cancel," because it is a valid transaction to pay the carrier. All we can do is check with BCB and get back to the clients. C: Mary Arnold (DOC) - Do you WAIVE or PAY out of this fund? R: What PPSPS was told was that you "waive" the bill rather than "cancel" it because cancelling implies that it is an invalid (i.e., nobody owed anybody). On the other hand, "waive" signals them that it is a different process (i.e., waive it because the agency is paying on behalf of the employee.) C: Mary said that it should be a cancel and re-bill it to the proper place. R: Jim Julian re-iterated that Steve will need to answer these questions.
   
   
7. Q: Vickie Cline (TR) - Will agencies be getting a report on the employees who will be affected by the PP-24 sweep. A: Jo and Glenda indicated that NFC had not planned to prepare a report notifying the agencies of the affected employees. A report was prepared at the end of September which should give agencies a rough idea of the number of employees affected. C: Vickie, with the support of the other CAPPS attendees, request that we provide a report.

   Post Meeting Update - A report identifying employees who are currently on LWOP-US and what their CES code will be after the PP-24 sweep was distributed to the affected clients on December 3rd and 4th. If your agency did not receive a report and you thought you had employees that would be affected, please contact Jody at Jody.Nyers@usda.gov or Jo at Jbonner@cfo.usda.gov.

8. Q: Jennifer Joyner (CFTC) - Their agency has not placed anyone on LWOP-US yet, but there is one coming up prior to PP-03. If they process a LWOP-US action, should they also do the T&A? A: Jo - We are not recommending one alternative over another to the agency. However, you must do one of two things if they are not going to a campaign, they do not get this benefit and thus it is easier not to do the T&A. If they are, you may either process the LWOP-US, submit the T&A each pay period, and TINQ out the LWOP-US time, or you process the LWOP-US and submit an AD-343 in PP-03, 2003. Whichever is easiest for the client will work for us.

9. C: Jo reminded agencies that the key to the sweep and the process working correctly revolves around the proper coding of the LWOP-US action. If the employee is on a campaign, the 2nd authority MUST be present. After PP-24, 2002, if the employee is on a campaign and the agency will not pay, then the MIL remark MUST be on the personnel action.

10. Q: Doralee Rosendof (TR) - on OPM's website it states employees are entitled to 120 hours (15 days) of military leave. If an agency submits a T&A, will we have to TINQ it? A: Yes; however, that will be different in PP-03. Until then, this is the process.

11. C: Louise Richard -
    a. Agencies should be aware that they cannot submit T&A's with military time on them and expect to get holiday pay that pay period. The rules are different for LWOP-US Military. R: Jo and the clients expressed some concern over this issue as the rule is typically if you are in a pay status the hour before/afer a holiday you are paid for the holiday. Jo will double check with OPM to make sure that there are no special rules for LWOP-US preventing them from this benefit.
    
    Post Meeting Update - Jo contacted OPM about this issue. OPM confirmed that if the employee is on LWOP-US it does not affect his entitlement to regular pay for the holiday provided he is in a paid leave status for 1 hour before or after the holiday. For example, if an employee is activated in July 2002 and uses all the military leave available to him. As of October 1, 2002, he becomes eligible for an additional 120 hours of military leave. That employee may use as little as one hour of his military leave on October 15th in order to be paid TC-66 for October 14th. This rule can be applied to all federal holidays. In addition, paid leave it is not limited to military leave, but applies to annual, credit or compensatory time also. (Employees on LWOP-US can be placed on sick leave.) OPM does not require that the agency return the employee to duty in order for this payment to be made.
    
    Further discussions with Louise after the meeting revealed that she was misunderstood in the meeting. The manual pay unit is aware that you can be paid for holidays if the employee is in a paid status before or after the holiday. However, timekeepers are submitting T&A's for employee's on LWOP-US with only holiday time (TC-66) on them. As with any other employee in LWOP status, these T&A's are inappropriate and are being deleted. Agencies should make their timekeepers aware of the policies for holiday pay while in LWOP-US status.
    
    b. If the timekeeper inadvertently submits LWOP T&A's for employees on LWOP-US, NFC will not TINQ out that non-pay time for them. That's an agency responsibility.

12. R: Rhonda Hickey (SBA) - So, are employees on LWOP-US eligible for the holiday pay if they are on paid leave that pay period. A: Jo - As indicated above, she will research this with OPM.
    
    
13. C: Jody - As far as military LWOP & FEGLI (not FEHB) goes; the system does not cancel any FEGLI coverage after 12 months of LWOP. The personnel office would have to process a cancellation document. Also, counters are not update with FEGLI LWOP.

V. Benefits Update (Jody Nyers) -

A. TSP Sweep for Eligibility Date - changes has been made. If you run a report and find employees whose dates did not change, please let Jody know ASAP (via email to Jody.Nyers@usda.gov). IRIS 118 should have the new date. Vickie, TR, indicated that they ran a report to identify their affected employees; however, they are requesting that the Customer Support Branch write/run the reports and provide them to the clients as a pro-active role any time this type of issue come up. Margaret Prell agreed to check into it and will let us know what they can do.

B. FEHB Child Equity - testing is going on as we speak with implementation scheduled for PP- 24. (Remember Child Equity is whereby the court orders an employee to cover FEHB for their child/ren). There are three new codes (6, 7, or 8). A bulletin was issued earlier this year (Title I, 02-9, dated May 9, 2002) and a followup bulletin will be issued shortly. Q: Mary (DOC) - Will PF1 or PF5 HELP be available for EPIC, IRIS, etc? A: EPIC Help can not be updated that quickly; however, Jody will check about updating Help in IRIS/PRES. Q: Cheryl (USDA) - What are the effects on EEX? A: EEX will have a "C" that indicates that the employee must use the HR office for these changes.

C. TSP Catchup Contributions (HR 3340) - Senate approved it; we are awaiting the President to sign the bill; TSP Board will still have the authority on when to make it effective, maybe by the April open season. Q: Rhonda (SBA) - Is this the bill on 50+? A: Yes.

D. TSP Error - Jody mentioned that she heard from Nick Sicoma about an error that occurred when an agency processed changes for this open season; however, they entered PP-01 of 2002 and the action applied. Jody mentioned that maybe an edit should be established. Glenda indicated there is no way to establish an edit for this because they are required by law to allow for up to 5 years of processing corrections and this is a table driven edit. Agencies must use care when entering these documents and maybe you should run daily reports to confirm what was entered and it was correct. Q: Jennifer Joyner (CFTC) - Can this error be made in EEX? A: Jody - No, EEX accepts your change and then tells you when the action will be effective, usually not later than the pay period following the pay period you entered the request.

VI. Employee Express Update (Jody Nyers) -

There was a problem with FEHB elections during open season on November 11, 12, 13. If employees made an election and/or change on these dates, the system still had the 2002 rates and information loaded. A confirmation letter was probably received. EEX has identified those employees affected and is sending out a second confirmation letter which should be received by the end of next week; however, if, after December 2nd, the employee has not received the confirmation they should contact EEX Help Desk.

VII. January 2003 Pay Increase (Jody Nyers) -

A. The OASDI Maximum Earnings for 2003 has increased to $ 87,000. The system is being programmed to capture this higher amount. The amount for 2002 was $84,900.

B. Update on January 2003 Pay Adjustments - Cliff sent out an email from OPM on 11/7/02 which is the latest information we have and we have no news on locality pay, that usually comes out around the first of December.

VIII. State Tax Updates (Jo Bonner) -

A. In PP-21 NFC will implement the state tax changes for Connecticut, Massachusetts, and North Carolina. The bulletins for these changes are 02-27, 02-28, & 02-29 respectively and they are on the NFC Web site.

B. At last months meeting there was a question regarding the state tax change in Virginia for PP-19. There was no state tax change in Virginia. However, when a split T&A is submitted (i.e., in PP-19 for some individuals), the state tax is computed separately for each half of the T&A. (i.e., Week 1 and Week 2 gross income, which may result in a lower biweekly tax withholdings for some individuals in some states).

IX. Employee Personal Page (EPP) (Jo Bonner) -

A USDA agency request to extend the time frame for retaining EPP data on separated employees has been declined. The current NFC procedures are to retain the separated employee's data for 90 days from last payment. What this means is that when the employee's record migrates to separated status on the mainframe, the employee's records will be dropped from EPP. One of the clients indicated that they thought the system dropped them immediately. Glenda Dorsey indicated the change permitting the 90 day window was made in PP-20. Jo inquired if anyone had any problems with this 90 day window. The clients did not have a problem with it so the request will not be pursued.

X. Training (Lynda Wilson) -

A. Training Database - There is one database that is used by STAR Web, EPIC, EPIC History Corrections and SPPS. Social security numbers and names are sanitized. The database is updated once a year after the PP-01 pay adjustment actions are processed. The update includes all the actions processed during the prior year. At that time, new social security numbers may be added. The schedule for this year is:

• New SSNs to be added are due to Lynda by COB on December 12th.
  
  
• Scenarios are also due on December 12th (These are the SSN's for cases that you have had problems with in regular production or that you want to add for training on specific problems. We will add their history)
  
  
• Socials will be added to Training database during week of February 17, 2003.
  
  
• PP-01 Year 2003 transactions will be added to the Training database during the week of February 17th. No training may be held during week of February 17th since the database will be unavailable.

Requests should be sent to Lynda Wilson on Lwilson@cfo.usda.gov. If you need a sanitized listing of your SSNs, let Lynda know.

1. Q: Tonya (USPTO) - will you update those SSN's already in the database? A: Yes.

B. SPPS Training - (A hard copy schedule was distributed.) - This training is for the new windows version of SPPS and available to everyone. It is in addition to the SPPS that is accessed via the mainframe. The transition training available for this is as follows:

• December 10-12, Dallas, TX - FREE
  
  
• January 13-17, Washington, DC - FREE
  
  
• February 24-28, Washington, DC
  
  
• March 11-13, Chicago, IL
  
  
• May 12-16, Washington, DC
  
  
• September 8-12, Washington, DC
  
  
• December 1-5, Washington, DC.

There are a few slots available in December, in Texas, and some in DC in January. These are FREE classes. FREE training is only good thru Jan 2003. After that, NFC will begin charging for the training. (i.e., There will be a fee for the Feb-Dec classes listed above!) Contact Sharon Giovengo at 504-255-3557 if interested in attending a session.

1. Q: Is SPPS training going on this week in DC? A: Yes.
   

XI. User & Work Group Updates

A. Awards (Jo Bonner) - The awards meeting originally scheduled for November 13th has been rescheduled for November 21st from 9-11. The original meeting was cancelled due to a bomb scare at the USDA complex on the morning of November 13th. The group is scheduled to work on a cancellation/correction bulletin and the 110 document SINQ error messages.

B. EPIC (Lynda Wilson) - The next meeting is scheduled for December 12th at 10am. The newest version of EPIC 2.03 must be loaded by December 8th. Agencies will not be able to use the older version of EPIC after that date. The notes were e-mailed to CAPPS on November 14th. Please review them for detailed information.

C. FESI (Glenda Dorsey) - NFC is working on implementing the last of the payroll documents that are in EPIC and PRES but are not yet in FESI. A mechanism for those agencies using FESI with out major EPIC input - we will have them available in FESI.

D. Leave Share (Jo Bonner) - The Leave Share Work Group has completed the draft letters and reports for the Leave Share package. (The documents were e-mailed to clients last week, however, the file was too large for some agency e-mail servers. Jo provided CD's to those agencies at the CAPPS meeting.) The two documents are attachments D & E to the package that was commented on earlier this year. Comments on Letters & Reports due by close-of-business on December 13th. If needed a Leave Share meeting will be held the week of December 16th to discuss the comments and responses. The attachments will then be forwarded to NOLA for incorporation into the original requirements. Thanks for your participation.

E. RIF (Debby Berry) - Did not attend - no report.

F. T&A (Jo Bonner) -

1. The T&A Requirements Work Group will meet from 1-3 today in the Resource Room to discuss outstanding questions from NOLA on the T&A requirements submitted in March 2002. The TAWG requested that the following two items be presented to the CAPPS community.

   a. Some clients have indicated that credit leave is forfeited upon separation from the agency. If you are under OPM jurisdiction, you are required to pay it. Mary mentioned DOC has a peacework incentive via T&A and will check into this and provide info to Jo. If special coding in certain fields, like AUO fields, weird things happen and we're trying to clean up all of this.

   b. Currently T&A's are used to generate changes and/or SF-50s for LEAP, AUO, Stand-by, and Change in Work Schedule. There is some discussion in changing this, but we need to make sure there is not something else - agency specific - that has been established. If your agency uses the T&A for something other than simply T&A's, please let me know by December 13th.

2. The T&A User Group elected not to have a December meeting, therefore, the next meeting will be January 22nd.

3. Q: Jennifer Joyner (CFTC) Can she have the OPM citation for the credit leave? A: Jo will provide it. Post Meeting Update: The URL for OPM's website on Credit Hours is http://www.opm.gov/oca/worksch/HTML/Cred_hrs.htm
   

XII. FOCUS Reporting (Ruben Vaughn & Cheryl Carmouche) -

Thanks to Jim Saunders (DOJ) for his help. He helped us identify several issues we have with FOCUS definitions. The focus information is very customized. We feel that most of the issues were corrected in that first pay period. Cheryl encountered a problem with the separated employee's.

A. Questions & Answers:

1. Q: Mary Arnold (DOC) - Has NFC released new FOCUS data dictionary yet? A: Reuben - He is not sure where the final version is. He will get back to us for the notes.
   
   
2. Q: Cheryl Ruf (USDA) - Does NFC have a list of the problems and what has been done to change them in case calls come in to the agencies. A: Reuben - They can document the issues they have, but not all came into his office. R: Several clients indicated that they would like to have such a list. Jody asked that NFC South share this list with the clients. Reuben indicated that they will not be doing this. He feels that the data would be of no value to the users.
   
   
3. Q: Mary Arnold (DOC) What should agencies do if a FOCUS report fails? A: Reuben - Continue to submit the problems to NFC.
   
   
4. Q: Ginny Peck (TR-BPD) - Who do we e-mail these to? A: Al Guilliot is the contact person for these issues. C: Mary Arnold (DOC) pointed out that Al is on travel right now and requested an alternate. R: Reuben said to send them to Doug Womac (504) 255-5230.
   

XIII. Potpourri

A. Jennifer Joyner (CFTC) - If you have a small agency and you want to see the counts in the Reporting Center data you cannot. Reports via the Reporting Center show an "*" in lieu of the figure if the data value is less than or equal to 3. What do they do to get this information? This is a security issue and the agency must request the "detailed" access for this type of information. Please contact Theresa Trentacoste (504) 255-5324 for information on this process.

B. Mary Arnold (DOC) - Is anybody having NFC garnish employees for Travel Card indebtedness? Cheryl (SBA) indicated that they had a case regarding a travel card indebtedness for a large sum of money. They submitted the information to NFC and it is being handled via an administrative garnishment. Linda Nicholson (MSPB) is handling these types of action in her agency via a split voucher type situation. Jim asked the clients to talk to Steve Loeffleholz. Mary indicated she had but did not like the answer he provided. That answer was that the agency would pay the credit card and then bill the employee.

C. Vickie Cline (TR) - Are any agencies using maxi-flex tours? USDA, Peace Corps, DOC, MSPB said yes. Vickie will contact them for more info.

D. Vickie Cline (TR) - Some E&L statements were not printing and the response they were given by NFC was that it was due to a HCUP case being processed. Everyone agreed that a HCUP would not affect the paper issuance of an E&L. Jody Nyers inquired if they sure the employee did not elect to utilize the paperless system via the Employee Personnel Page? Vickie indicated that she did not know. She will send to NFC North some SSN's and the NFC individual who had provided the HCUP response.

E. Vickie Cline (TR) - Indicated that the problem with the org structure out on the tables has reoccurred with the HCUP cases. (The problem referenced is with the END DATE on the org structure table affecting the processing of HCUP packages.) Mary stated her only problem was if they deleted the old codes in lieu of entering an ending date. Vickie will provide some SSN's and details for NFC to research.

F. Vickie Cline (TR) - FYI, the child care data has to be entered manually for the W-2's and TR anticipates that this will affect about 1,000 of their employees.

G. Ginny Peck (TR-BPD) - The SF-2809's entered into Employee Express (EEX) for open season changes are falling into suspense. Jody - Need to run your EEX SINQ reports to ensure documents are not sitting in suspense. Employees can enter via EEX but it's the agency HR responsibility to ensure the documents apply.

Post Meeting Update: Per Mary Arnold they are experiencing this problem also thy have typically found that the "election" document was the correct one and the "correction" document could be deleted.

H. Linda Nicholson (MSPB) - have the 2003 FEHB Rates been updated in tables? Jody - Yes.

XIV. Meeting Update -

There will be NO CAPPS meeting in December. The next regular meeting will be January 15, 2003, in the Lincoln rooms.

ATTENDEES

ARC - Linda Gandara
AOC - Anita Banks
CFTC - Jennifer Joyner
DOC - Mary Arnold & Marie Waters
DOC-PTO - Tonya Robertson & Sharon Scott
FCC - Lillian Lowery
FDIC - Lucy McCabe
FMCS - Sue McMinaman
MSPB - Linda Nicholson
Peace - Juanita Cathings & LaShawn Stone
SBA - Cheryl Harrigan & Rhonda Hickey
TR - Vickie Cline & Dora Lee Rosendorf
USAID- Dorothy Tolliver
USDA - Cheryl Ruf
NFC - Jo Bonner, Jody Nyers, & Lynda Wilson
- (via teleconference) Jim Julian, Margaret Prell, John McCrosson, Reuben Vaughan, Cheryl Carouche, Glenda Dorsey, Debby Tatum, Louise Richard