Q. Does the reduced annuity under age 55 apply to Civil Service Retirement System law enforcement officers who opt to take the Voluntary Early Retirement Authority and Voluntary Separation Incentive Payments (VERA/VISP)? Or is the CSRS law enforcement category exempt from this reduction? A. Assuming that you aren’t talking about retiring as a CSRS law enforcement officer, the law enforcement category isn’t exempt. The 2 percent reduction for being under age 55 would apply. On the other hand, if you are talking about a CSRS law enforcement officer who retires under the special age and service criteria – age 50 with 20…
Browsing: Creditable service: CSRS
Q. I am 57 and a retired federal worker. I retired under the Civil Service Retirement System at the GS-13 level. I only worked a total of about three months before my federal service paying into Social Security, so I am not eligible for any Social Security benefits for myself. However, my husband, who is 60, has worked since he was 19, and has been paying into the Social Security system since then. My understanding is that I am not eligible to receive any of his Social Security benefits because my civil service pension is too high. My question: Is…
Q. I will be retiring this year (2012), with 30.3 years as a Civil Service Retirement System employee. The leave year ends on Jan. 12, 2013. If I waited until then to retire to maximize my leave cash-in value, my annuity wouldn’t start until February 2013, but if I retired on Dec. 31, 2012, my annuity would start in January 2013. However, I would not maximize my leave cash-in value. Is this correct? A. If you retired on Dec. 31, you would receive a lump-sum leave payment for all the annual leave you had accumulated up to that point. If…
Q. I’m a Civil Service Retirement System Offset employee with 18 years, 6½ months, under straight CSRS; 12 years, 7 months, at retirement (April 30, 2012); and with at least 40 quarters earned under Social Security before federal service. I had an appointment the other day at the Social Security Administration to see what my benefits, offset amount and windfall amounts would be. The person who I talked to had no idea about the CSRS Offset and kept calling the windfall elimination provision (WEP) an offset. She insisted she never had to consider/calculate the offset amount for the Office of…
Q. I have been receiving workers’ comp benefits since 1981. I have no Civil Service Retirement System benefits available, as I withdrew my contributions when I was separated from service. I am now 65 years old and have applied for Medicare. I have maintained my Blue Cross/Blue Shield insurance through the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs. There is now a dispute as to whether that insurance is primary or Medicare is primary. The question seems to revolve around the following question: Am I “retired” or am I still employed? Do you know the answer? A: Workers’ compensation is an income…
Q. I am a Postal Service carrier in the Federal Employees Retirement System, but with a Civil Service Retirement System component. Before I became a career CSRS employee, I had 3 years as a sub (from 1980 to 1983), for which I have made a deposit. My question is: Is that time covered under CSRS or FERS? I was told by a retirement specialist that it is considered FERS time, which is reflected on my current annuity estimate. An older estimate gave me credit under the CSRS. I am planning on retiring soon and would like to be sure that…
Q. My wife started working under the Civil Service Retirement System in July 1982 and continued to work under CSRS until August 1989. She is re-entering the government workforce. She plans to stop working in eight years when she will be 57, and will have 15 years of government service. It appears she would be eligible for deferred retirement benefits at age 62. How will her benefits be calculated? A: It all depends. When she returns to work for the federal government, she’ll be covered by CSRS Offset (CSRS and Social Security), with the option of transferring to the Federal…
Q. I am a federal firefighter who will retire in the next year and I have a question about my sick leave. I am under the Civil Service Retirement System, and at retirement, I will have 35 years of creditable service. I understand I should get the 80 percent maximum entitlement of my base pay at retirement. I want to clarify how my unused sick leave will be calculated into my retirement annuity. At retirement, I will have almost 5,000 hours of sick leave. I was told that I would receive an additional 2 percent added to my retirement annuity…
Q: I served as a military policeman on active duty in the Army from 1981 to 1983. I purchased this time for credit for my federal retirement. Can this time be used under the FERS law enforcement officer retirement? The MP duties meet the requirements and definition of a federal LEO under FERS. I believe CSRS does not credit this service. A: No. The law is clear. Only civilian law enforcement officer service counts when determining an employee’s eligibility to retire under the special provision and receive the more generous annuity computation. When you are eligible to retire as a…
Q: I am CSRS and I have been taking just under six months of LWOP every year for the past 10 years. Is the calculation of my high-3 years the actual pay I received or the pay that I would have received if I had not taken any LWOP. Example: Let’s say my basic pay with locality is $55,000 per year but I have only been receiving $45,000 per because of the LWOP taken. Is the high-3 based on the $55,000 or the actual pay of $45,000? A: It’s based on the pay you would have received, not the pay…