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. ### |