Q: I have a question about minimum retirement age-plus 10. I am 55 and have 27 ½ years of service. If I retire at age 56, am I to understand that my annuity would be reduced by about 30 percent if I started collecting it right away? Also what would happen to my health benefits? Could I still use them immediately upon retiring? I have 14 years of frozen service under the old Civil Service Retirement System so how would that be affected?
A: If you retire under the MRA+10 provision and begin receiving your benefits immediately, the Federal Employees Retirement System portion of your annuity would be reduced by 5 percent for every year that you are under age 62. The CSRS portion of your annuity would be reduced using the CSRS annuity formula: 0015 x your high-3 x 5 years of CSRS service, plus 0.0175 x your high-3 x 5 years of CSRS service, plus 0.02 x your high-3 x all years of service over 10. Assuming that you were covered under the Federal Employees Health Benefit Plan for the five consecutive years before you retired, that coverage would continue in retirement.
