Q. What form would I use to get a refund or a CSRS overpayment. I am retiring as a LEO with 36 1/2 years service, 20 of which are under a covered position. And who do I send it to? A. Because you will have reached the 80 percent limit on your earned CSRS annuity, when your application for retirement is processed, OPM will send you a statement showing the amount of your excess contributions, and they will offer you a choice. You can either accept the excess contributions or use them to buy additional annuity, which is not subject…
Author Reg Jones
Reg Jones
Reg Jones was head of retirement and insurance policy at the Office of Personnel Management. Email your retirement-related questions to fedexperts@federaltimes.com.
Q. I left the VA after 10 years of service and was under the civil service retirement program. When I left I was a GS-5, step 4. I was employed from June 27,1977 until July 5,1987. I left my retirement funds and did not withdraw them. I thought I might return to federal service someday. I am now 57 years old. As things turned out I did not return and now I am approaching retirement age. I have been told that I may not be able to draw both Social Security and civil service retirement. I need to understand if…
Q. Does being covered under FEHB as the spouse of a federal employee count toward the five-year requirement for FEHB eligibility as a retiree? At the time I retire, I will have been covered as a spouse for approximately 2 1/2 years. And I was covered under my own policy for about 25 years prior to that. There was no break in coverage. A. All that matters is that you were covered by the FEHB program for the five consecutive years before retiring. It doesn’t make any difference whether you were enrolled or covered as a spouse or even switched…
Q. I am a career SES employee with 27 years in the civil service, seven under CSRS and the balance in FERS (I left government in 1985 and returned in 1990 and chose FERS). I will be 61 years old next month, and I am considering retiring to take a position in the private sector. If I were to retire at 61 and work in the private sector for four or five years, would it be possible for me to reinstate my federal health insurance coverage when I retire from the private sector position? What factors should I consider? Keeping…
Q. My question is regarding special category employees. I’ve heard that over 16,000 employees would be affected by this. If an employee is promoted to GS-08 before he reaches 20 years of service, he would not be entitled to special category retirement pay. Is this true? If it is, what can I do to retire as a special category employee? A. To be eligible to retire as a firefighter under the enhanced benefit formula, you need to be employed for 20 years in a covered position. While you must start in a primary position, you may later transfer to a…
Q. On March 16th you answered a question with information concerning OPM checking only once to see if you were eligible for Social Security. Would you please expound upon that statement and tell us how that would affect a CSRS employee? I am just a few quarters shy of having 40 quarters and wondering if it means I would be better off waiting until I am 62 before completing the 40 since I will retire from CSRS before I am 62. A. I think you are referring to what’s popularly referred to as “Catch-62.” If a CSRS retiree served on…
Q. I see that the approximate COLA for retirees this year might be 0.1 percent. My question is, does that include postal retirees? I know we all go through OPM now, but sometimes it looks like postal retirees fall into a different group. A. The cost-of-living adjustment for retirees in 2010 was zero. While it’s been estimated that it will be 0.01 percent next year, when it comes to COLAs, no distinction is ever made between postal and non-postal employees
Q. I just attended an agency-sponsored retirement class at my office. It was told, by the private contractor, to all the firefighters and law enforcement personnel attending that overtime is calculated as part of your base pay along with locality pay when considering your high-3. Is this true? Can we include the overtime and if so can you please cite where I can find it? A. No, it isn’t true. Overtime, as such, is not considered to be a part of basic pay when calculating an employee’s high-3. However, firefighters do get credit for a certain portion of their standby…
Q. I am a retired civil service annuitant currently working as a rehired annuitant with the Homeland Security Department. I was re-employed as a rehired annuitant under the pension offset waiver, thus earning my full pension and salary. I was told when I complete my rehired annuitant employment, I can apply for a recalculation of my civil service annuity, based on a higher “highest 3 year average” I am now earning as a rehired annuitant. Please advise if this is true, and how I can apply for a recalculation of my annuity. A. As a rule, annuitants who are re-employed…
Q. Will my FERS supplement be taxable income? A. Yes