Nearly eight months after the first round of USAID officials were terminated as part of the Trump administration\u2019s dismantling of the agency, the most fortunate among them \u2014 those who were eligible for retirement benefits at the time they were pushed out \u2014 have yet to receive their first pension check. Some are struggling to get by. \u201cAfter the career that I’ve had, how hard I\u2019ve worked and the sacrifices I’ve made, to find myself without any income, without being able to pay for the upfront medical costs for my kids, and not knowing if I’m going to be able to pay my rent next month \u2014 I just never thought I’d be in this situation,\u201d said Blake Chrystal, a former USAID foreign service officer who was forced into retirement in July after nearly 20 years at the agency. For both the USAID foreign service and civil service, eligibility for retirement benefits was determined by a combination of age and number of years served. Foreign service officers, for the most part, could retire with benefits at 50 years old with 20 years of service. For most civil service officers, the cutoff was either 25 years of government service or being 57 years old with 10 years of service. \u201cWhen we realized that this thing had really blown up and none of us were going to come back from it, I kept thinking, well, at least I’m lucky enough that I’ll have some source of income once I retire,\u201d said Chrystal. Now the widower and father of three, whose career with USAID sent him to Afghanistan, Botswana, and Australia, among other places, is facing close to a year without any income. Chrystal \u2014 who currently resides in Paraguay \u2014 told Devex that having to tell his kids to forgo basic expenses and worrying about whether he could afford upfront emergency health care costs has piled additional stress on top of losing a job that was core to his identity. \u201cThat just makes me feel like I\u2019m not a good father,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s hard, and regardless of what happens, we’re going to be in this situation at least for another couple months.\u201d Chrystal said he believes his delayed annuity payments add up to between $60,000 to $70,000. The reason pension payments are taking longer than they did before USAID\u2019s dissolution is not a mystery. What was already a multistep bureaucratic process has been overwhelmed by the sheer number of people who were forced into retirement in the last year. The agency office in charge of processing retirement benefits went from handling roughly 15-30 retirements a year to a sudden influx of over 700 in 2025 due to the Trump administration\u2019s massive \u201creduction in force,\u201d according to Randy Chester, the USAID vice president at the American Foreign Service Association. Before 2025, it usually took 30-45 days for the State Department to issue retired foreign service officers their first annuity check, once the department had received their packages from USAID, said Chester. \u201cNow we’re looking at 90 to 120 or maybe even 150 days from when State gets it to when you receive your first annuity check,\u201d he said, adding that the delay shows that political appointees were \u201cunprepared\u201d for the consequences of dismantling USAID. \u201cIt’s just one insult after another insult,\u201d he said. \u201cThey just had no clue as to what they were doing other than living up to their dream of causing and inflicting pain to everyone they could, and that’s what they were successful at, but nothing else.\u201d The remaining USAID staff who are responsible for processing retirement packages are making significant progress, having whittled down the number of pending files to less than 300, multiple sources told Devex. \u201cI think HCTM, honestly, is trying,\u201d said Chester, referring to USAID\u2019s Human Capital and Talent Management team, which continues to operate inside what little is left of the agency. But USAID\u2019s sign-off is just the first step. From there, foreign service officer retirement packages have to be approved again by the State Department, which is also absorbing its own increase in retirements. Packages for civil service officers \u2014 who mostly served domestically and were part of the broader U.S. federal workforce \u2014 undergo a different process, handled by the White House Office of Management and Budget. The payments also require processing by a little-known office called the National Finance Center, which is housed inside the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Meanwhile, former USAID officials and their union representatives told Devex it is very difficult to extract information at each stage of the process. \u201cWe have a ton of people that are just spinning, and it looks like it will be many more months before they see anything,\u201d said Mike Henning, president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 1534, a labor union representing employees at the State Department and USAID. A second USAID official who is eligible for retirement but has not received their first annuity check told Devex they are wary of even discussing the payment delays because so many of their former colleagues will not receive them at all. Many of the roughly 10,000 USAID officials who lost their jobs did not qualify for retirement benefits. Some were months away from retirement eligibility, only to see the future financial security they had expected from a career in public service wiped away by the Department of Government Efficiency. \u201cI don\u2019t even talk about it as an issue, because I feel very lucky that someday I will get money,\u201d said the second official, who requested anonymity. Chrystal \u2014 who served as USAID\u2019s deputy mission director in Kabul during the COVID-19 pandemic \u2014 said a career spent coordinating assistance programs in some of the world\u2019s poorest places also puts his current situation in perspective. \u201cI gotta sometimes just take a step back and remember that even if everything continues to go as badly as it’s gone up to this point, I’m not going to be as bad off as so many people in this world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Nearly eight months after the first round of USAID<\/a>\u00a0officials were terminated as part of the Trump administration\u2019s dismantling of the agency, the most fortunate among them \u2014 those who were eligible for retirement benefits at the time they were pushed out \u2014 have yet to receive their first pension check.<\/p>\n Some are struggling to get by.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter the career that I’ve had, how hard I\u2019ve worked and the sacrifices I’ve made, to find myself without any income, without being able to pay for the upfront medical costs for my kids, and not knowing if I’m going to be able to pay my rent next month \u2014 I just never thought I’d be in this situation,\u201d said Blake Chrystal, a former USAID foreign service officer who was forced into retirement in July after nearly 20 years at the agency.\u00a0<\/p>\n This story is forDevex Promembers <\/p>\n Unlock this story now with a 15-day free trial of Devex Pro. <\/p>\n With a Devex Pro subscription you’ll get access to deeper analysis and exclusive insights from our reporters and analysts.<\/p>\n Start my free trial<\/a>Request a group subscription <\/a><\/p>\n Printing articles to share with others is a breach of our terms and conditions and copyright policy. Please use the sharing options on the left side of the article. Devex Pro members may share up to 10 articles per month using the Pro share tool ( ). <\/p>\n Michael Igoe is a Senior Reporter with Devex, based in Washington, D.C. He covers U.S. foreign aid, global health, climate change, and development finance. Prior to joining Devex, Michael researched water management and climate change adaptation in post-Soviet Central Asia, where he also wrote for EurasiaNet. Michael earned his bachelor’s degree from Bowdoin College, where he majored in Russian, and his master\u2019s degree from the University of Montana, where he studied international conservation and development.<\/p>\n![\"Michael](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Igoe_Michael-1.jpg\"\/)
Michael Igoe<\/a>@AlterIgoe<\/a><\/p>\n