Q. Under CSRS, will I be eligible for immediate annuity payments (within 30 days) if I retire at 53 years old with 34 years of service? Also, I believe that the base for a CSRS employee who is 55 and has 30 years is 56 percent of the ultimate salary figured used. Every year of service above 30 equals another 2 percentage points and every year under 55 equals a subtraction of 2 percentage points. So retiring at 53 with 34 years of service would mean 60 percent, correct?
A. Unless your agency offers you an opportunity to retire early, you wouldn’t be able to do that. If they did, your CSRS annuity would be reduced by 2 percent for every year (1/6 percent per month) that you were under age 55.
