Q. I am a federal employee with 33 years and five months of cumulative service — 12 years and four months of that service is attributable to active-duty military time that I had purchased back during my first few years of civilian service. When computing my FERS retirement benefit, does the government consider that 12 years and four months for purposes of calculating the Social Security Offset (if I retire prior to age 62)? No one in my agency’s HR can confirm this.
A. FERS retirees aren’t subject to an offset either to their annuities or their Social Security benefit. Maybe you are thinking about the special retirement supplement, which approximates the amount of Social Security benefit you earned while a FERS employee. The SRS is based solely on an employee’s actual FERS service. Since it is paid out of the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund, it doesn’t include other Social Security-covered service, even if a deposit has been made to get credit for it.
