Q. I was a rural route mail carrier from Feb. 20, 1979. I quit in July 1986 and was rehired in November 1986. I was put on civil service offset. There was not a year break in service, but when I turned 62 my pension was cut almost in half. Why?
A. If you were covered by Civil Service Retirement System when you worked as a rural route carrier and retirement contributions were taken from your salary, you should have been placed in CSRS when you returned to work. However, it’s too late to do anything about that now. Fortunately, despite what you wrote, it hasn’t changed the amount of your retirement income. At age 62, your CSRS annuity was offset by the amount of Social Security benefit you earned while a CSRS Offset employee. You’re getting the same amount, it’s just coming from two places, the Office of Personnel Management and the Social Security Administration.
