TSP is Nearing ‘Normalcy’ After a Troublesome Recordkeeper Transition

The federal government’s Thrift Savings Plan retirement program has recently begun reducing its long customer service wait times to an average of ten minutes, down from two hours or more. Many officials feel it’s the first sign of hope as the government closes in on completing the TSP‘s difficult transition to a new recordkeeping service provider that began in early June. The new provider touts several new and improved features alongside additional changes within an updated website and, more importantly, a secure log-in process.

Unprecedented call volume quickly overwhelmed the previous service provider, in addition to the TSP’s customer service line. The vendor in charge of ThriftLine’s management expressed an underestimation of received calls, resulting in short staffing issues and more. The transition to the new service provider has not been without complication, though, with an average exceeding 34,000 calls per day. By hiring 1,050 new customer service reps, many officials expect some sense of normalcy to settle in at ThriftLine toward the beginning of August.

At the beginning of the transition, the TSP staff were busy processing upwards of 1,900 loans every day – a 100% increase since June of last year. Although a week-long service outage was determined to be the most likely culprit of an uptick in daily withdrawals, numbers are estimated to continue increasing. Even the sheer amount of online logins has improved since the switch, with up to 90% of all participants successfully logging into TSP.gov without help. As logins and interactions continue to improve online and over the phone, officials hope to spark change toward a sustainable trend in answered calls and resolved complaints.

Lawmakers have impatiently awaited a timely solution to remedying the TSP’s rocky recordkeeping transition, with many calling for investigations into the changeover. Constituents began taking to contacting their state representatives in an effort to rectify the situation, which resulted in several reaching out to the Government Accountability Office. Eleanor Holmes Norton is one example of lawmakers making strides toward preventing this mishap in the future, by preparing legislation that would establish inspector generals within the agency itself.

As the federal agency continues to add new customer service representatives to answer the sheer number of calls, the end comes into view. We should expect the TSP to return to normal operations by the beginning of September, at the latest. The long-planned upgrade to the outdated system has been fraught with planned and unplanned downtime and is backed by an 18- to 24-month contractual transition period. While most participants have struggled to even sign in online, the fully transitioned website promises ease of access in the near future. How and when this completed transition will affect TSP participants is yet to be seen.