Q. I am 63 and have 28 years of paying Social Security under CSRS Offset, and 13 years of CSRS. For CSRS Offset, they show a reduction of Social Security to almost 50 percent due to the windfall; yet with the Offset, it appears that I still will be getting the same total retirement amount (approximately 80 percent of High-3) between Social Security and windfall. If I kept working under Social Security until I hit 30 years, will the CSRS annuity be reduced based on the increased Social Security so its stays within the approximate 80 percent of my High-3, or will it increase based on the additional Social Security?
A. Your annuity will be initially offset by the amount of Social Security benefit you earned while a CSRS Offset employee. However, when you receive that Social Security benefit there will be a 5 percent reduction for every year that you have fewer than 30 years of substantial earnings under Social Security. If you continue to have earnings from wages or self-employment from which Social Security deductions are taken, the amount of your Social Security benefit will be increased.
6 Comments
When I resigned my full time position I was in the CSRS retirement. I was reemployed in three months and was put in the CSRS offset retirement. It looks like you need to be gone from employment for more than a year to be in the CSRS offset. Am I in the wrong retirement system?
How many years of CSRS service did you have when you resigned? If it was fewer than 5 years, in what year did you leave and then return?
I had 8 years of service in.
I left 10/26/1986 and returned 01/05/1987.
I had 10 years of federal service in Dec 1987 and had elected already to keep my retirement in CSRS rather than FERS as this option was given to us around 1985. We moved to where there was no federal agency close that I could be employed. In 2006 we had moved and I was able to get back in a federal job position and I was placed in CSRS Offset when the temporary position became full time. I have now worked 10 more years in CSRS Offset. I have worked the private sector for 30 years now paying in social security, I hope to retire in a few years (I hope as I am 69 and still working, but started to draw social security when I was 67) and I have redeposited some amounts that were for some temp assignments I had in the first few years. How will the offset (WEP) affect me? I have been told that it may be figured several different ways depending upon who does it (at OPM). I feel I am getting screwed since I worked in both systems a fair amount of time, but can’t get full benefit by “getting two government pensions” as the WEP states.
If you have at least 30 years of substantial earnings under Social Security when you retire, you won’t be affected by the windfall elimination provision. To find out more about the WEP, go to https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10045.pdf. To learn how the Offset portion of your CSRS annuity would be calculated, go to https://www.opm.gov/retirement-services/publications-forms/csrsfers-handbook/c050.pdf and scroll to Section 50A3-1-4. As you’ll see, the amount of your CSRS Offset annuity won’t be reduced, you’ll just receive the payments from two different places, OPM and the Social Security Administration.