In a somewhat defensive tone, at the September meeting of the TSP governing board TSP officials responded to complaints related to the changeover to a new operating system in June.
While those complaints have declined since the system’s early weeks, they continue and still focus on a number of issues which officials listed in a “TSP Fact Checking” presentation that included — rare for such government documents — use of exclamation points and bold-faced type.
For example, it says that in response “You can’t get through when calling the TSP!” it says that calls are being answered within 30 seconds on average. (Note: Call volume is down and the number of phone representatives is up from the initial period when many account holders complained of waits on hold for hours and sometimes being disconnected.)
In response to “My account was not right after the blackout!” it says: “We received over a dozen inquiries from participants over accuracy and fund allocation. Every reported case of an inaccurately converted balance ended up being unfounded.” (Note: Based on general feedback, “over a dozen” seems notably low.)
In response to “My beneficiaries were lost after the blackout!” it said that of the 6.6 million account holders, only 1.4 million ever filed a designation “and none were lost.” It says that 157,000 of those were not migrated into the new system (the TSP previously cited data issues with them) but they remain on file. (Note: In addition to forms not being migrated, there have been complaints about difficulties in filing new designations.)
In response to “You can’t set up your account!” (the changeover required that even those already with online accounts reestablish them) it says that 2.5 million have done so and that “92% of all attempts have been completed online.” (Note: That also means the majority of account holders still have not gone through the setup process under the new system.)
And in response to “The mutual fund window is a failure as no one is using it!” it says: “We expected a usage of 1-2% of TSP participants over the next several years; MFW provides options; it’s not useful for all participants.” (Note: The TSP had made similar statements even before the launch.)
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