KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) — Hundreds of Kansas City Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and other federal workers who took early retirement as part of the Trump administration’s plan to shrink the federal workforce are still waiting for promised payments nearly three months later.
Reduction in the federal workforce
In early 2025, in an effort to reduce the federal workforce, the Trump Administration had a ‘Fork in the Road’ email sent to all federal employees. Employees had the chance to take the deferred resignation program (DRP).
“I’ve been there almost 40 years, and I’ve never seen anything like this before coming from whoever that decides to lay out an order,” said Retired IRS Tax Analyst, Fawn Collins.
Many Kansas City IRS employees juggled whether or not to take the deal. Thousands of workers were estimated to have taken the initial deal.
In April 2025, the DRP 2.0 was offered, as well as voluntary retirement.
“I had not planned on retiring for another 3 years,” said Robyn Backman, who retired as an IRS Management Program Analyst.
“I really did enjoy my job, and no, I was not planning on retiring,” said Retired IRS Tax Compliance Officer, Kelley Slattery.
Metro IRS workers are facing payment delays after taking early retirement in workforce reduction(KCTV5)
Taking the deal
Many agreed to take the deal then as well, including Fawn Collins, Kristi Darby, Robyn Backman, and Kelley Slattery, who all worked for the IRS and live in the Kansas City Metro.
“It got to a point where physically, mentally, and for my health-wise, I wasn’t going to be able to sustain another two years,” said Collins.
“My husband retired last summer, so I was like, Why not?” said Kristi Darby, who retired as an IRS Senior Tax Analyst.
After taking the DRP offers, many IRS employees didn’t work for most of the summer, but were paid as promised by the program.
“It is basically kind of like a severance pay if you retire, we are going to pay you through September 30th, but you don’t have work, most of us at the IRS are required to work till June 27 for filing season, not working but getting paid,” said Backman. “I had the budget, I’m a numbers person, I had the Excel sheet, and I thought ok I can do this.”
The six women KCTV5 Investigates spoke with all had their retirement date set as September 30.
“I retired on September 30. I had what little payment was left that was around October 14, and I have received nothing,” said Darby.
IRS building in Kansas City(KCTV5)
Waiting for payments owed
These women said that after September 30, they had not received much communication about the next steps they initially expected.
According to paperwork from the U.S. Office of Personnel, which handles these retirements, it shows a timeline of what the next steps are.
“Nothing that we were promised has happened,” said Collins.
Here’s what was expected. After retiring, they were set to get their final paycheck and annual leave payment within four to six weeks.
The annual leave is something employees accrue after working with the government for more than 15 years. It is eight hours per paycheck of time off. If they don’t use it, the government pays it out when they retire.
Some of the women are owed more than $19,000 in annual leave.
This week, Collins and Backman received their payment. Slattery and Darby are still waiting for theirs.
“No one anticipated taking what November, December, three to four months, just to get a payment, that is ridiculous,” said Slattery.
It is supposed to be a three to five-month process, but it took three months for some to get the first payment.
Once they get the annual leave sum, they are expecting interim payments of their annuity to help pay bills while the government finishes processing their paperwork.
Those first interim payments have yet to come through.
“They are overwhelmed, they can’t handle it, and people are suffering as a result. The income, I mean, you give me a fork in the road, give me my money and plan for that too,” said Backman.
“Now it is like you know I still have a mortgage I have to pay, I have medications that I’m on that I have to have every month, I have utilities and everything else I need to do, I pretty much have scaled back,” said Collins.
These women feel it is poor communication, a lack of leadership, and planning that have led to these problems.
“It is frustrating when you’ve given your whole life to the federal government, you think you have this retirement there, and it is going to come, and it doesn’t,” said Darby.
“People do not realize how many federal employees are suffering after they gave all of their life all of their dedication to the federal government, and this is what we get,” said Collins. “We are seriously bleeding to death financially because we don’t have what is entitled to us coming to us, and it is sad.”
They’ve reached out to their senators and representatives in Congress as well as HR, but still haven’t gotten very far.
“You gave us this offer, a the fork in the road, you wanted us to do it, we are doing it, and now you are showing such a lack of respect in making sure that we get what is promised and what we earned,” said Backman.
“We shouldn’t be penalized because we decided to basically devote our lives to civil service,” said Slattery.
They are hopeful that something can be done so they can ensure they receive their pensions that they’ve been working toward for decades.
KCTV5 Investigates reached out to the IRS and Office of Personnel Management for comment on what is happening with these retirements, but has not heard back.
KCTV5 Investigates also reached out to all congressional offices for Kansas and Missouri. Missouri Republican Representative Sam Graves is the only one who replied. The statement reads:
“I am always ready to assist anyone having an issue with a federal agency, including federal retirees. If there are issues, I would encourage them to call any one of my offices or their US Representative/Senator.”
“It is only fair that we are given what is due to us,” said Darby.
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