Q. My understanding is that the Supplemental Retirement Annuity (or payment) that FERS retirees may receive when they are eligible to retire before age 62 is subject to an earnings test. My question is what happens if you retire during the middle of the year — do the earnings for work during the year you retire, but before your retirement date, reduce your SRA, or is the earnings test applied only to the work performed after your retirement date? A. No, they don’t reduce it. They fall under the Social Security “first year” rule.
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 am a FERS employee, age 52 with 23 years of service. Due to my spouse’s retirement, we are selling our home and relocating to another state. Although I received an outstanding performance evaluation for the past two years, my request to work from home was denied, based on agency policy. As a result, I am planning to separate and defer my annuity until age 60. I am wondering whether this situation could possibly be considered an involuntary separation. Of course, having it classified that way would allow me to continue FEHB enrollment so this would be beneficial. Can…
Q. How does a federal employee go about finding out what their FERS balance is at any specific time? Like if I was to retire tomorrow, what would my annuity payments be drawn on, balance-wise? A. You can find the amount of your retirement contributions by looking at your most recent pay slip. However, that information isn’t related to what your annuity will be. For most employees that will be based on the following formula: 0.01 x your highest three years of average basic pay x your years and full months of service. If you were to retire at age 62…
Q. Is there a bill in progress to assist federal employees with repaying their FERS retirement for years of service who withdrew funds and then returned to government service? A. I’m not sure what you are asking. If you want to know if it is now possible for an employee to repay the amount of FERS retirement contributions that were refunded to them when they left government, the answer is yes. The law changed on Oct. 28, 2009 to make that possible. If you are asking if the government has a program that would financially assist employees who want to…
Q. I was once a Special Agent of the U.S. Secret Service (series 1811). I left in January 2007, so I have been away for more than three years. As I am seeking to return to the Secret Service, I have five questions: 1. I understand FERS employees who leave and take a refund of their retirement contributions (which I did) are prohibited by law from buying back that annuity when they return to work for the government. Is there a provision for contributing more than the standard percentage to “make up” the difference? 2. If not, I presume my…
Q. On Feb 16, you answered the below stated question, Can I please get some more information on this. Any reference or regulation you were using. We have a firefighter who will be retiring in the next nine months who was told by our CPAC (Army Civilian Personnel Office) that even though he will have 20+ years as a firefighter, If he leaves special retirement and transfers to another job instead of retiring that is outside of the special retirement, that he will lose it, and when he finally retires, it will be a normal retirement rate even though he…
Q. I am retiring and live in Alaska. I want to determine how and when I would be allowed to buy back the locality pay/COLA pay percentage I worked for, since January of 2010. I am suppose to be able to buy back the portion of my locality pay rate that I would be entitled to. The P.L. 111-84 was effective Jan. 1, 2010 and I retire on April 2, 2010. That would amount to three months that I could pay back to obtain the full RUS rate, which is 13.86 percent for this part of the year that I…
Q. I served four years in the Navy from 1989-2003; right now, I work for the U.S. Postal Service as a ptf city carrier. If the post office cuts back to a five-day workweek, they will do layoffs. So, should I buy back my four years of service because that would put me at seven years of service and I think it takes seven years to keep from getting laid off. And, of course, what would be the cost of the buyback? The post office told me I had three years from my hire date to pay no interest and…
Q. I’ve got 37 years in the CSRS system and I’m 57 years old. I also have 37 quarters in the Social Security system. Would it be advantageous for me upon retirement to earn the remaining quarters to become eligible for Social Security? I’m hoping to retire within two years and wanted to know about the offset with my annuity within the CSRS system? A. Earning the additional credits needed to qualify for a Social Security benefit would have no affect on your CSRS annuity. Instead, the windfall elimination provision of law would reduce the amount of your Social Security…
Q. I have been in a primary firefighter position for roughly nine years. I am curious what will happen to my FERS retirement calculations if I move into a position that is not covered by special retirement rules, for example, a recreation job. How will the nine years of firefighter time be figured into my retirement calculations? I understand that more money (1.7 percent) is deducted from my paycheck for my retirement fund than my co-workers who are not firefighters, so that must come into play when my retirement annuity is calculated, right? I’ve been looking at the FERS handbook,…