Q. My wife, who is terminally ill, is covered by FERS and is an employee of the Postal Service. She is running out of sick and annual leave. If she goes on leave without pay and passes away while on leave without pay, will I, as her current husband (25 years +) still be eligible for the basic employee death benefit (50 percent of final salary plus $15,000)? A. If your wife had more than 18 months service but less than 10 years, you’d receive a lump-sum payment of $31,316.46 plus a lump-sum of the higher of 50 percent on…
Monthly Archives: January, 2013
Q. I quit my civil service job after 29 years. Can I be reinstated? A. You could check with your former agency to see if it would be willing to either reinstate or hire you. Or you could go to www.usajobs.gov, find a position for which you are qualified, apply for it and, if hired, pick up where you left off. However, if you withdrew your retirement contribution when you left, you’d have to redeposit that money plus accrued interest to get credit for those 29 years of service.
Q. I am career permanent in federal government employment as GS-14. I wish to leave to take a private-sector job to see if I like it. How long can I remain on unpaid leave of absence and still have return rights back into federal employment? A. You are asking about leave without pay, the granting of which is solely at the discretion of your management. Your management would be unlikely to grant LWOP to someone who wants to test private-sector waters. It would provide little or no benefit to them and would tie up a position they would be better…
Q. I have 25 years of CSRS service. From 1971 until Aug. 15, 1991, I worked for the post office, then I quit and took out my retirement, $20,000 at the time. I went back to work at the VA in 2008. I owe $64,000 on my deposit. I was in FERS; then FERCCA helped me get in the offset. When I retire, I will be 62. Am I entitled to an actuarial reduction? How does that work? A. Because you took a refund of your retirement contributions after Feb. 28, 1991, you will receive credit for that service in…
Q. I have been a FERS 6c employee for eight years. I have 12 years of active-duty military service. I have already put in two weeks’ notice to leave my 6c job but would like to buy back my military time to increase my deferred annuity. Do I have to buy back the military time before my employment terminates? A. Yes.
Q. I was checking for a friend who quit about four years ago. He took out his FERS and Thrift Savings Plan money. Can he pay back his FERS so he can receive a pension? He had about 14 to 15 years in. A. He can only redeposit the refund of his FERS contributions if he returns to work in a position that confers FERS coverage.
Q. If I die after retirement and have my annuity reduced to get a full survivor annuity benefit for my husband, I understand my husband will get 55 percent of what my regular retirement annuity would have been. What if I am retired and my annuity is reduced to cover full survivor benefits for my husband (survivor) and he dies before I do? I understand my annuity check will be returned to full value, but what happens to all the money taken out for him? Do I get a lump sum refund or does it go to the estate? A.…
Q. My father worked for the post office for 15 to 18 years before taking early disability retirement around 1994 or ’95. He passed away in 1998. My mother receives an annuity each month. She recently became unemployed. We were discussing her drawing Social Security in a few years and getting my father’s. I was unaware that he did not pay in while employed with the Postal Service because he paid into retirement there. Is my mother able to draw his retirement pension, or is the annuity all she gets? A. Because your father was a Civil Service Retirement System…
Q. I am 70 years old and still employed as a federal worker. Does the HMO I am covered by now become my secondary when I retire and I get Medicare Part B? Is my payment to my HMO reduced if it becomes my secondary? A. As soon as you retire, Medicare will become the primary payer and your HMO the secondary payer. That goes for Medicare Part A and Part B. The rates you pay for your FEHB coverage won’t change. You’ll pay the same amount you paid when you were an employee, unless you are a Postal Service…
Q. Hello, I’m a civil servant with a retirement service computation date of Aug. 28, 1986. This includes approximately 15 years of civil service time under FERS and two active-duty stints for the remainder. I have two DD-214s to account for the military time. My question concerns the noninclusion of other active-duty time I completed while a reservist. I completed approximately four more years of active duty between 1989 and 1997 that was not documented via a DD-214 — active duty for training, for example. I understand that inactive training periods don’t count toward the computation, but does the ADT…