Q: I hired on with the federal government Oct. 15, 1985. At that time, I wasn’t given a choice of Federal Employees Retirement System or Civil Service Retirement System, everybody was FERS. However, I did buyback my Air Force service and my service computation date is April 15, 1982. This maybe fishing, but should I have been given the option to go CSRS if the service computation date is in 1982? I also had about four months of civil service in a temporary job in 1978 if that makes any difference.
Is there any circumstance that would ever allow someone to transfer from FERS to CSRS? If not, are there any plans to increase the guranteed annuity (CSRS) portion of FERS?
A: No, you shouldn’t have been given the option to be covered by CSRS. You were correctly placed in FERS. The fact that you made a deposit for your active duty service is irrelevant because it occurred after you were hired. As for that period of temporary service, it wouldn’t have made any difference. Finally, neither now nor will there ever be an opportunity for those who are correctly placed in FERS to elect coverage under CSRS.
