Q. I am a rehired annuitant working at the CDC. I completely understand why CDC offsets my salary by the amount of my OPM annuity. Each year, OPM and CDC provide me with a small COLA increase of around 1 to 2 percent. In January each year, when CDC becomes aware of the small increase in my annuity, they offset it in my salary so that, in effect, I lose my OPM COLA. So, over the years, my total compensation gradually loses ground. I can see why my CDC salary needs to be offset, but why do I have to suffer the loss of COLAs for the annuity? Doesn’t seem fair to me. Can you explain?
A. Your agency is required to reduce your salary by the amount of your annuity. That is clearly stated in the Code of Federal Regulations. At 5 CFR 837.303(a) it states that “the pay of the reemployed annuitant shall be offset by the amount of annuity allocable to the period of reemployment.” While there are certain exceptions to that basic rule, they don’t apply in your case.
