Q. Special provision employees’ careers are much shorter than those of typical federal employees.The “20 years service and 50 years old or 25 at any age” requirement for Voluntary Early Retirement Authority mirrors our normal retirement plan. Is there a VERA rule that would allow a firefighter/air traffic controller/ law enforcement officer to get out earlier than the 20 years and 50 years old? A. No.
Monthly Archives: December, 2011
Q. My father passed away this June. He was 59 years old had well over 20 years in the FAA; he was not retired and still working as an air traffic controller. He paid in both Social Security and his retirement making him CSRS Offset. My mother does not work and is already collecting widow benefits from Social Security, but we are getting a big run around from OPM saying that it is going to deduct her retirement checks 1) because my father quit in 1984 and then rejoined the FAA in 1988 and has been working for it since,…
Q. Can a former federal employee, who availed himself of a buyout, hire on at the Federal Reserve Bank on a term-appointment basis? Can he do this less than five years after the buyout and, specifically, without paying back the buyout? A. Here’s what OPM has to say on the subject: “An employee who receives a VSIP and later accepts employment for compensation with the Government of the United States within 5 years of the date of the separation on which the VSIP is based, including work under a personal services contract or other direct contract, must repay the entire amount…
Q. I transferred to FERS from CSRS. I had 700 hours of sick leave at the time of transfer and now have 1,000 hours of sick leave. Will the entire sick leave balance I have at retirement all be credited to the FERS portion of retirement estimate calculation or will the total sick leave balance I have at retirement be credited to the amount earned while I was under CSRS and the amount I earned under FERS? A. Any unused sick leave that doesn’t exceed the amount you had when you transferred to FERS will be credited to the CSRS component of…
Q. How are the base retirement survivor annuity amounts determined? They seem to range from $3,600 upward. A. It depends on the employee’s retirement system. A retiree under either system must elect a full survivor benefit, unless the spouse agrees to a lesser amount or none at all. A full CSRS annuity would be 55 percent of the the retiree’s unreduced annuity; under FERS, 50 percent. If the spouse of a CSRS retiree agrees to a lesser amount, it can range from $1 a year up; under FERS, the only lesser amount would be 25 percent. When you cite the $3,600 figure, you…
Q. I have a service-connected disability and will be retiring soon under CSRS. Would my wife receive money from my service-connected disability and from my civil service with a survivor annuity of 75 percent? A. If you elected a full survivor annuity for her, she would receive 55 percent of the amount of your annuity before it was reduced to provide for that annuity, increased by any subsequent cost-of-living adjustments that you received after you retired. She would also receive the proceeds of your Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance. Because this is a site dedicated to answering civilian benefit questions, I don’t…