The Office of Personnel Management has temporarily paused all new enrollments in FSAFEDS — the government’s flexible spending account program — after a surge in fraudulent activity affecting hundreds of federal employee accounts.
OPM’s inspector general office shared more information about the pause on Thursday, saying it comes “out of an abundance of caution,” and to try to prevent further fraud, the OIG said in a special fraud alert.
In addition to new enrollments, the enrollment pause also applies to any current enrollee in FSAFEDS who experiences a qualifying life event (QLE), such as a marriage or the birth of a child.
During the pause, current FSAFEDS enrollees are still able to make reimbursement claims. Once OPM chooses to resume the enrollment functionality, FSAFEDS will retroactively adjust any elections based on QLEs. But currently, OPM has not set a date for when the functionality will resume