Q: My husband will be retiring from the federal government in about 21 months and has been told that cannot elect the monthly survivor annuity (he is under CSRS) if his spouse is a federal employee. Is this true? He was told that this is “double-dipping.”
A: What he was told isn’t true. Unless there is a court order assigning the survivor annuity to a former spouse, he is free to elect a survivor annuity for his current spouse, regardless of whether she works for the federal government, the private sector, or not at all.
