Q. When I retired, I selected a full survivor annuity for my spouse. She recently passed away. What happens to those funds that were withheld from my annuity to provide her survivor annuity? A. If you are asking if you are due a refund, the answer is no. However, once you have notified the Office of Personnel Management of your spouse’s death, your annuity will be increased to the level it would have been had you not elected a survivor annuity.
Monthly Archives: July, 2012
Q. I retired from active duty in 2005. I made a service deposit to buy my academy time. When I reach minimum retirement age+10 next month, I will have 10 years and five months of creditable service (six years and six months since hired, plus three years and 11 months purchased service), more than 240 hours of annual leave and more than 600 hours of sick leave. I’ve gotten a formal Office of Personnel Management retirement estimate to verify my understanding that I can do a MRA+10 retirement this year. I initially used Tricare for my health insurance, however, to…
Q. I am 56 with 34 years of federal service, and I have just learned that my position has been declared surplus. Due to my rank in my present position in the Wage Grade series, I do not see any way they can place me into an existing vacancy. If I’m offered a Voluntary Separation Incentive Pay, will I be able to collect my full pension and the VSIP? A. Yes.
Q. My father is 68 years old, has accrued over 30 years as a Postal Service letter carrier and looking to retire in a couple of months. He is also an Army veteran. Unfortunately, he does not have a firm grasp on retirement options (evidently his pension is available), but he was told that he had not accrued enough Social Security quarters to get retirement payment via the latter method. Is this possible after 30+ years of employment as a letter carrier? A. Because your father is a CSRS employee, he didn’t have Social Security deductions taken from his pay.…
Q. I’m not sure how FERS disability retirement works. We are required to apply for Social Security and if we are still working, we are automatically turned down. Once we are approved for disability retirement, do we get a check from disability and Social Security? My confusion lies with the formula. The first year is high-3 minus 100 percent of Social Security. The second is minus 60 percent Social Security, and so on. Does that mean we will receive two checks? A. You’ll find the answer to your question by going to www.opm.gov/retire/pubs/handbook/C061.pdf and scrolling down to Section 61B2.1-3.
Q. I recently turned 65 and signed up for Medicare Part B. I am still working. When I go to a doctor’s office and tell them I have both Part B and Blue Cross high option, what will Part B pay for? I continue to receive notices from Blue Cross telling me how much I owe the doctor with no indication that Part B has paid anything. I thought that Part B was supposed to pay the doctor the co-pay that Blue Cross doesn’t pay. A. While you are working, Blue Cross-Blue Shield will be primary and Medicare secondary. The notices…
Q. I worked for the Postal Service for two years and eight months, and left in the early 1970s to raise my child. At that time, I withdrew my contributions. When I returned to federal service (not the post office) in 1987, I was told I was not vested in CSRS and therefore had to be enrolled in FERS. I was credited with my post office service, so my service computation date is Dec. 7, 1984, rather than February 1987, when I was hired. I would like to know if I should have been offered the opportunity to repay my withdrawn…
Q. I am a Postal Service employee, Under CSRS, what is the maximum number of leave hours one can cash in at retirement: 240, 360 or more? A. Bargaining unit employees can receive a terminal leave payment for their accumulated leave from the previous year (a maximum of 440 hours) and any accrued annual leave in the year they retire. Executive Administrative Schedule employees can receive a terminal leave payment for their accrued annual leave carried over from the previous year (a maximum of 560 hours) and any accrued annual leave earned during the year in which they retire.
Q. Is there a formula to help figure out how much my annuity will be reduced at 62? I have approximately 30 years of paying Social Security, 14 of them with the federal offset. With my monthly annuity now and my estimated Social Security benefit at 62, can I lose money? A. Your CSRS annuity will be offset by the amount of Social Security benefit you earned while covered by CSRS Offset. Therefore, you’ll be getting the same amount of money. It will just come from two different places: the Office of Personnel Management and the Social Security Administration. Use the following…
Q. I am considering retirement sometime after 2014. In 1994, I bought back three years of active military time. The only documentation I can find of doing this buyback is a receipt from my federal agency for the amount of the check I wrote. Is there a way to get better documentation of this buyback so my retirement paperwork goes smoothly? A. Yes. You can write the Office of Personnel Management, Retirement Operations Center, P.O. Box 45, Boyers, PA 16017-0045 and ask for a statement that you’ve made the deposit.