Q: When a person on Federal Employees Retirement System disability reaches age 62 and a recomputation is done, are the cost-of-living adjustments added to the “high-3” salary from the regular pay schedule or from the annuity COLA schedule? My high-3 was $47,116 when I became disabled in February 2004, and I turned 62 in June 2010. I live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. I was under the impression that COLA was determined by the GS schedule and locality pay. A: When you reach age 62, the time your spent on the disability annuity roll will be added to your actual…
Monthly Archives: October, 2010
Q: I plan to retire at the end of this calendar year under the Civil Service Retirement System. My tour of duty is 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday thought Friday. Everything I read says the optimum date to retire is Dec. 31. Human resources says I can only retire on the first, second or third of the month, and they want me to retire Jan. 1. It is my understanding that there is no advantage to retiring after Dec. 31 because the weekend days aren’t paydays and if I retire Jan. 1, I will lose one day of my…
Q: I have 33 years under the Civil Service Retirement System. Prior to that, I was with a private company and completed 32 quarters under Social Security. I will be 70 years old in June. My separation notice under the Base Closure and Realignment Act will be issued in June, and I will have to leave my job by Sept. 15. What are my best options to qualify for Social Security (40 quarters)? I understand there will be offset payments. Should I continue work two more years, finding another job after Sept. 15, and forget Social Security? A: You can…
Q: In reading your article on key dates for federal retirement in the Oct. 4 issue of Federal Times, you say that “CSRS employees get full credit for unused sick leave.” I am eligible to retire by age and years under the Civil Service Retirement System, but have been told that only increments of 174 hours of sick leave will be “rolled” into my retirement calculation. A: At retirement, any days and hours of actual service that don’t add up to a full month are added to any hours of unused sick leave. To provide retirees with 12 equal monthly payments,…
Q: I can retire in February with 31 years of service under the Civil Service Retirement System as a part-time/flex employee in the U.S. Postal Service. My “high-3” years were from 2006-2009. Will they use these years to calculate my annuity? Is it always the last years? Is it always three consecutive years, or is it the highest consecutive three years? As a PTF, my hours changed yearly as to how many offices I worked in. Also, when I was hired in 1979, I never heard of “buying back” or anything related. Since I made no deposits, or didn’t know…
Q: I worked in a federal job as a temporary employee where no retirement deductions were taken out for seven years. I was then converted to a permanent employee. I am now 62 years old with 33 years of federal service and a service computation date of 1977. I am looking at retirement but I am reading about the requirement to pay a deposit back so that my annuity will not be reduced by 10 percent. How do I go about determining what that amount is, and how do I pay it back? A: Because your period of nondeduction service…
Q: I just recently became employed as a GS. In reviewing my Notification of Personnel Action form (SF-50), I had a number of questions which I asked of our human resources personnel: The form indicated I have no veterans’ preference and no creditable years of military service, though I have almost 25 years of service. The response I received was that I would have to surrender my pay and purchase the years of military service if I want to have it credited for civilian service. I have no intention of doing this. I was referred to the Office of Personnel…
Q: Thank you for your recent article on key dates for retirement in the Oct. 4 edition of Federal Times. I have a question that wasn’t completely answered by the article. I am a veteran with more than 22 years of active-duty service. I joined the Food and Drug Administration two years ago, so I am under the Federal Employees Retirement System. I turned 51 this year and plan to retire sometime between age 62 and 65. I will not have 20 years of service at age 60, but I certainly will have five years of service at age 62.…
Q: Please advise whether government employees who are retired will receive a cost-of-living adjustment for 2011, since Social Security recipients won’t get an increase for next year. A: Because cost-of-living increases for retirees track the increase in Social Security benefits, federal retirees won’t get a COLA increase in 2011.
Q: I’m a disabled federal retiree drawing a federal retirement. I paid into Social Security while on National Guard status for 30 years. I’m currently working and paying into Social Security and will have enough quarters to draw Social Security payments at age 62. I understand there is an offset that will apply to my retirement. I have received a Social Security statement every year; my past statement shows I will draw around $750 at age 62. Is this my retirement amount after the offset, or do I need to reduce this amount by the offset amount? If that’s the…