Q: I understand that to be eligible to carry Federal Employees Health Benefits coverage into retirement the individual must, have at least five years of consecutive coverage under the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program, or have been covered since your first opportunity to enroll. My question concerns a federal employee who is covered under their spouse’s FEHB. If the spouse dies, is the survivor still covered? A: If you were covered under the self and family option of an FEHB plan when your spouse died, you would continue to be covered.
Monthly Archives: July, 2010
Q: I worked for the Census temporarily in 2000. Would those months of service count toward retirement under the Federal Employees Retirement System? A: No.
Q: I will be eligible for retirement in 2011 with 35 years of service under the Civil Service Retirement System. I have just heard that I will need to work 40 years to get 80 percent of my salary. What percentage will I receive if I retire with 35 years of service. A: To receive an annuity that equals 80 percent of your highest three years of average salary, you would have to have 41 years and 11 months of service and owe no deposits or redeposits. To figure out how much your annuity would be, use the following formula,…
Q: I will have completed 20 years under the Federal Employees Retirement System in mid-2015 at the age of 58. Because I wish to continue contributing to and receiving Federal Employees Health Benefit, I do not want to go the deferred annuity route. If I retire with 20 years service at age 58, will I be able to receive my annuity and the special supplement until age 62? If so, will I be able to work in a private sector job and still receive my annuity and supplement? A: You aren’t eligible to retire. Unless you are a law enforcement…
Q: I took an early-out retirement in 2003 and have been working for the Army in Hawaii as a contractor since 2004. I have a few questions I’d like confirmation on. My position has been insourced, and I will be offered a job as a rehired annuitant to provide critical skills missing from current workforce. Under this critical skills scenario, I have been told there will be no decrement to my current CSRS Offset retirement monthly payment to offset my government salary, is that correct? Will I have any type of 401(k)-like program that I can contribute pre-tax dollars to? Do I get to participate in the…
Q: If offered an early out by an agency, which presumably would allow for the special supplement to apply (the Office of Personnel Management website only says you “may” be entitled to), how is that computed? From what I read on the OPM website, the base amount figured on a 40 year pay into Social Security divided into the number of years of Federal Employees Retirement System service (in my case 24/40). Does the base figure assume I paid into Social Security up through 62 years of age (even though I haven’t); or the figure what I actually have paid…
Q. I am currently a Defense Department employee and also retired Air Force officer enrolled in the Federal Employees Retirement System. I served 21 years active military service. I am making deposits to Defense Finance and Accounting in order to potentially buy back my post 1957 military service time at time of my final retirement. During my military service, I sustained injuries performing hazardous duty (instrumentality of war). As a result, I have a 90 percent VA disability rating and Air Force Combat Related Special Compensation (CRSC) at the 90 percent rate. If I decide to combine my Military Service…
Q: What will my high-3 be if I retire at the age of 55 with 34 years of civil service? My computation date is Nov. 10,1980. My retirement date is planned for Nov. 10, 2014. A: I’ll give you the formula. You’ll have to do the arithmetic. 0.015 x your high-3 x 5 years of service, plus 0.0175 x your high-3 x 5 years of service, plus 0.02 x your high-3 x all remaining years and full months of service. Additional months are created if you have any unused sick leave. You can find out how many you have by dividing your total…
Q. 1) Suppose one retires under the Civil Service Retirement System on Sunday, Oct. 31. I like to ask whether that is an especially poor date because I heard: a) in computing the high-3, only 30 days are used and thus Day 31 is not used; b) if one retires any other day except for the 31st, an extra day is added in computing high-3; c) two days of annuity is lost since salaries are not paid/prorated on weekends while annuity is paid/prorated. Yet, Human Resources said that the above is untrue because by some complicated formula, Day 31 is considered…
Q: I retired at the end of 2007 but continued to work part time until February . I “failed” my first earnings test in June 2009, and my supplement was suspended that August. My earnings for 2009 were similar to 2008, but my earnings for 2010 will be below the threshold for a supplement reduction. When and how will my supplement get turned back on? A: According to the Office of Personnel Management, special retirement supplements are reviewed when it receives information on the annual survey they sent to retirees or from either the Social Security Administration or the Internal Revenue Service…