Q. I am a FERS employee who is on disability from the U.S. Postal Service, plus I am getting Social Security Disability Insurance. What will happen when I reach 62 and start getting my pension from USPS? A. When you reach age 62, your FERS disability benefit will be recomputed as if you had worked to age 62. Therefore, your actual service will be added to the time you spent on disability. The total time will be multiplied by 1 percent (1.1 percent if you have at least 20 years of actual service and time spent on disability). That figure…
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Q. I am a federal worker with the U.S. Border Patrol for 28 years. Two months before my retirement I injured my right knee on duty. I am coming to an end of my COP and don’t have much sick leave left. Doctors are looking on total knee replacement, which will put me on leave without pay. How is LWOP calculated on pay? I heard it’s only a percentage of your basic pay. A. You would receive full credit for the time you are on LWOP, as long as it doesn’t exceed six months in a calendar year. Assuming that…
Q. I’ve been working for the federal government for 12 months and am planning to leave. If I buy back my eight years of active-duty service before I go, would I be eligible for a FERS annuity at age 62? A. No, you wouldn’t. To be eligible for a deferred annuity, you would need to have five years of actual FERS service. Active-duty service for which you’ve made a deposit only counts after you are vested in the retirement system.
Q. My husband retired under CSRS in 2015 and had his annuity reduced to provide a survivor benefit for me. He was 59 when he died in 2018. Along the way he had paid into Social Security for enough years to qualify for a Social Security benefit at age 62. I also am a federal employee, under CSRS and still working. I was told that I’d be eligible to receive some of his Social Security benefits until I retire. Is this true? A. Yes, it is. As long as you are working, you are entitled to a Social Security survivor benefit based…
Q. I am 43 years and have 20 years of federal service. I’m planning to leave for a job in the private sector but won’t ask for a refund of my retirement contributions. When will I be eligible to retire and receive an annuity? A. You can apply for a deferred annuity when you reach your minimum retirement age, which is 60. Just be aware that as a deferred retiree, you won’t be eligible to receive the special retirement supplement or re-enroll in the Federal Employees Health Benefits or Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance programs.
Q. I started at the Transportation Security Administration in May 2018 with a temporary appointment. No retirement deductions were taken from my pay. I was made a permanent employee in October of that year. Can I buy back the temporary time and have it used in the computation of my FERS annuity? A. Unfortunately, no. Nondeduction service performed on or after Jan. 1, 1989, isn’t creditable for either retirement eligibility or computation purposes. Therefore, you can’t make a deposit to get credit for that time.
Q. I’m a FERS employee who is getting ready to retire. I plan to elect a full survivor benefit annuity for my wife. Will it be increased by COLAs or change with age? A. If you elect a full survivor benefit, your basic annuity will be permanently reduced by 10 percent. If you die, your widow will receive a survivor annuity that equals 50 percent of your unreduced annuity; in other words, the annuity you would have received before you made the survivor election. That survivor annuity will be increased by any cost-of-living adjustments that were made to retiree annuities following your…
Q. My father retired from the federal government and elected a survivor benefit for my mother. She recently passed away. He was told by someone in the Office of Personnel Management that he couldn’t name me to receive that a survivor benefit. Is this right? A. Yes, it is. Only a spouse (or a former spouse under a court order) can receive a survivor benefit. When your mother passed away, he should have informed the Office of Personnel Management. At that point, the reduction in his annuity to provide for a survivor benefit would have been eliminated and his annuity…
Q. I have over 12 years of active duty service in the Army. I have accepted a job with a federal agency. I’ve been told that I can “buy back” my active duty time. How do I go about doing that? A. Yes, you can make a deposit for your active duty service and get credit for that time in determining your length of civilian service and have it used in your civilian annuity computation when you retire from the government. If you complete that deposit within two years after you come on board, you won’t be charged any interest on…
Q. Do CSRS Offset retirees receive separate payments from Social Security and the Office of Personnel Management? A. If you retire before age 62, you will receive a single annuity payment from OPM. When you reach age 62, your CSRS annuity will be reduced by the amount of Social Security benefit you earned while a CSRS offset employee, and you will begin receiving a separate Social Security payment that represents the amount of Social Security benefit you earned while covered by CSRS Offset. That payment will be larger if you have other Social Security-covered service outside of your years as…