Good Question: Will forever stamps really last forever?

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — This we know for sure, the United States Postal Service has to do something different going forward. It’s lost $69 billion over the last eleven years.

More delays and higher rates could also be coming.

“Does it make a difference if it’s an extra day to get a letter? Because something has to change,” Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told lawmakers during a hearing on Capitol Hill last week.

A viewer named Dick asked News10NBC’s Brennan Somers about the USPS plan for the future.

Here’s the message: Forever stamps are supposed to cover the standard fees for first-class postage. What will be the value of these stamps if the first-class tier is eliminated? Do they become "valueless" stickers?

Somers sent that question to the postal service to get the answer.

USPS states “The Forever Stamp will be valid for mailing any future 1-ounce single-piece First-Class Mail letter, no matter what the price may be at the time of mailing — without the addition of extra postage.”

We can tell you no additional price changes have been announced for 2021 and the 10-year strategic plan for USPS hasn’t been finalized.

News10NBC did get this detailed response from DeJoy regarding this issue:

“Over the past eight months, our executive leadership team has been working on developing a comprehensive 10-year strategy to address the serious but solvable challenges of the Postal Service that commits to six and seven days a week delivery service to every address in the nation as a vital public service that is critical to the nation, that invests in our people as well as our infrastructure, including new vehicles, and that meets our statutory requirement to be self-sustaining. This important effort is being taken at the direction of our Board of Governors with their full participation and commitment.

I have spoken to key stakeholders across the spectrum about this work – from members of Congress to business partners, to our union and management leadership, and that dialogue is ongoing. Their input is critical to successfully fixing problems that are preventing the Postal Service from meeting the American people’s expectations for reliability, and resulting in billions of dollars of losses every year with no end in sight.

This work is not only needed, it is long overdue. As we finalize our plan we look forward to sharing more details in the coming weeks. Until we have the additional discussions noted above and the plan is finalized, it would not be appropriate to provide such details.”

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