Prepared by Public Affairs 312-751-4777

In light of recent national events, the Railroad Retirement Board has heard from a number of its beneficiaries concerned with the safety of benefit payments delivered through the mail. The RRB wants to assure its customers that benefit checks continue to be issued without incident or delay and they should experience no interruption in service.

The agency is encouraging those beneficiaries seeking an alternative way to receive their benefit payments to consider enrolling in the Direct Deposit program. With Direct Deposit, payments are transferred electronically from the U.S. Treasury Department directly to recipients' checking or savings accounts at banks, credit unions, or savings and loan institutions.

Those enrolled in Direct Deposit have their payments automatically available in their accounts on the morning of the payment date. There is no need to make a special trip to cash or deposit a check. Direct Deposit also eliminates the risk of a paper check being stolen, lost, or misplaced.

In addition to providing recipients of Federal payments with a simple, safe and secure method to receive their money, Direct Deposit saves the RRB trust fund the costs of processing paper checks. A check costs the Government approximately 46 cents to process and mail. An electronic transfer to a Direct Deposit account costs 4 cents to process.

Direct Deposit has proved to be a popular choice for millions of Federal beneficiaries. Over 80 percent of railroad retirement annuitants and almost 85 percent of the claimants for railroad unemployment and sickness insurance benefits currently receive their payments through Direct Deposit.

Enrolling in Direct Deposit is easy. Annuitants may simply telephone, write or visit the nearest RRB field office to start Direct Deposit or to make Direct Deposit-related changes. They may also enroll in the program through their financial institution.

Persons can find the address and phone number of the RRB office serving their area by calling the automated toll-free RRB Help-Line at 1-800-808-0772. They can also get this information from the RRB's Web site at www.rrb.gov. Most RRB offices are open to the public from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.

###