Q. At age 60, I will be eligible for FERS and Air Guard retirement. I bought back two years and four months of active Air Force time. Will I receive my full Air Guard retirement, which includes those active-duty points? Or, since I bought those points back, will they be deducted from my Air Guard retirement? Also, at 62, when I am eligible for Social Security, will I draw full FERS, full Air Guard and full Social Security?
A. The fact that you made a deposit to get credit for your active-duty service won’t have any effect on your reserve retired pay. Therefore, when you retire, you’ll be eligible to receive both your FERS annuity and your reserve retired pay. If you retire before age 62, you’ll also be entitled to the special retirement supplement, which approximates the amount of Social Security benefit you earned while a FERS employee — in other words, your pure FERS time, not including the active-duty service for which you made a deposit. At age 62, you will be entitled to a Social Security benefit based on all your Social Security-covered employment. If you apply for that benefit at age 62, it will be less than it would be if you were to retire when you reach your full Social Security retirement age. These range from 65 to 67, depending on your year of birth.
