The Thrift Savings Plan has provided some additional details on the upcoming change to increasing the automatic enrollment percentage from 3% to 5% for plan participants.
This will affect federal employees and Blended Retirement System (BRS) participants who are automatically enrolled in the TSP on or after October 1, 2020. It will also affect BRS participants automatically re-enrolled in the TSP on or after January 1, 2021.
In a memo published September 23, the TSP published tables detailing to whom the change would apply and under what circumstances:
| If a civilian participant… | then the participant… | |
| was automatically enrolled before 10/1/2020, and is still contributing at the automatic enrollment rate on | 10/1/2020 | remains auto-enrolled at 3%. |
| is separated before 10/1/2020, and then rehired, and subject to automatic enrollment on or after | is auto-enrolled at 5%. |
| If a BRS member… | then the member… | |
| was automatically enrolled before 10/1/2020, and is still contributing at the automatic enrollment rate on | 10/1/2020 | remains auto-enrolled at 3%. |
| is separated before 10/1/2020, and then rehired, and subject to automatic enrollment on or after | is auto-enrolled at 5%. | |
| was automatically enrolled, but stops contributions during the year and is automatically re-enrolled on | 1/1/2021 (or any January 1 thereafter) | is auto-reenrolled at 5%. |
The TSP also noted that the upcoming change “will not affect the contribution rates in place for FERS and CSRS participants who were automatically enrolled in the TSP prior to October 1, 2020, or BRS participants who were automatically enrolled prior to October 1, 2020, and did not terminate their contributions.”
The memo also stressed that the 5% figure is critical because this is the amount that federal employees need to be contributing to the TSP in order to get the full match from their agencies.
