Q: I am considering retiring, but need to know whether there is a specific form I must complete in order to continue my Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurance after retirement? I have had BCBS for over 5 years. A: No special form is required. Your coverage will continue seamlessly without your doing anything other than your checking the box confirming your eligibility on the Application for Immediate retirement: Standard Form 2801 (Civil Service Retirement System) or 3107 (Federal Employees Retirement System).
Monthly Archives: February, 2010
Q: Is the Special Retirement Supplement check taxable each month? A: The Special Retirement Supplement is included in your annuity payment and is taxed at the same rate.
Q: In your Jan. 25 article “New year, same COLA,” you say that the Social Security withholding stays at $106,800, and that “if you are a Federal Employees Retirement System or Civil Service Retirement System Offset employee, any amount you earn above that amount won’t be subject to the 6.2 percent Social Security deduction.” However, I am a GS-810-14, Step 10, Forest Service employee under CSRS Offset and the National Finance Center withholds Social Security from my paycheck for the entire year. Withholding from my paycheck doesn’t cease at the $106,800 limit. This seems contradictory to what the article states.…
Q: I’m curious about the rationale behind shift differentials counting toward a WG employee’s basic pay and high-3, but it doesn’t count for GS employees. Why is this? Is this an OPM regulation? Is there a way I can learn more about what I see as an inequity to GS employees because shift differential doesn’t count toward their high-3? A: Shift differentials for wage-system employees are provided for in law. Such a provision isn’t needed for general-schedule employees because these and other factors are included when determining their job grades.
Q: On www.ssa.gov/retire2/military.htm#2002 it states that between the years 1957 and 2001 Special Extra Earnings can be credited to your Social Security benefit for active-duty military service between the above mentioned years. Will this affect an adjustment to a CSRS annuity? My Post 56 payment was paid in full in 1986 to avoid interest payments. A: No, it won’t.
Q: I have six years of military service before I entered government service, and I have six years under FERS. I am 6C law enforcement with cover of 1.7 percent a year. Can I retire with 20 years of service, combining all those years, and defer my retirement without reaching my MRA? Can I retire with 20 years of service, combining all those years, and defer my retirement without reaching my MRA? Can I take a deferred retirement after 20 years plus a day and start collecting when I am 60 without been penalized 5 percent for every year that…
Q: I am a 65-year-old active CSRS federal employee. My wife is 63 and receives Social Security benefits. Am I eligible for a Social Security spousal benefit while I am still employed and not receiving a CSRS annuity? A: Yes, you are. However, when you retire, you will be subject to the government pension offset provision of law, which will reduce that spousal benefit by $2 for every $3 you receive in your CSRS annuity. In most cases, the GPO eliminates the Social Security spousal benefit.
Q: I am a federal firefighter who works a 72-hour workweek. This is the required hours that I work. As a GS-8, Step 9, I make $83,658 per year. However, my “High Three” would be based off of the firefighter base pay of $73,906. I know that the difference is overtime. However, the overtime is part of the required hours for a firefighter’s tour of duty. My question is, why is our retirement not based on the higher pay? Seeing that this is what we are really paid and not the so-called base pay of 73,906. If a federal employee…
Q: I am being required to travel on a federal holiday to attend training. My Human Resources department has advised me that I will not be given travel compensation time off or paid overtime based on a 2005 OPM directive. That is: “Although most employees do not receive holiday premium pay for time spent traveling on a holiday (or an “in lieu” holiday), an employee continues to be entitled to pay for the holiday in the same manner as if the travel were not required. Thus, employees may not earn compensatory time off for travel during basic (non-overtime) holiday hours…
Q: Can I begin drawing Social Security at age 62 while still being on the payroll? A: Yes, you could. However, because you would be under full retirement age, your Social Security benefit would be reduced by $1 for every $2 you earn above the annual earnings limit, which is $14,160 in 2010. In the year in which you reached your full retirement age, the reduction would be $1 for every $3 you earn above a different limit ($37,680 in 2010). Because you were born in 1948, your full retirement age is 66. In the month in which you reached full retirement…