Q: I retired with 42 years of federal CSRS service. Two years later I was rehired by my former agency and have been paying into the CSRS system for 8 years. Can you tell me how they will recalculate my new pension, and will I receive a refund for all the money I paid into the retirement fund? A: Your annuity will be recalculated as if you had never retired, using the standard CSRS formula. Your high-3 will be based on your highest three consecutive years of average salary, whenever that occurred in your career. Since a CSRS annuity can’t…
Browsing: Creditable service: CSRS
Q: I am more than 55 years old, quit federal service more than 17 years ago, after 16 years under CSRS and never withdrew from my CSRS contributions. Question: If I return to work, I will be under FERS. Can I transfer CSRS money withheld into FERS and get credit in FERS “retirement benefit” calculations for the 16 years I worked under CSRS? What options are available? How many more years must I work to retire under FERS? If I work part-time, will it take longer? A: If you returned to work for the government you would be placed in CSRS…
Q: I retired from the military, then became a civil service employee. My military time for retirement was based only on my commissioned time, i.e. from entry to extended active duty to the date I separated for retirement, but not including the ROTC summer basic training I received before getting the commission. For civil service retirement computation, can the six weeks of ROTC basic training be included since it was government employment, paid at the E-3 rate? Of course I would need to make a deposit for that time. A: No.
Q: If a CSRS Offset employee with 19 years, five months of service had seven months of unused sick leave, could that sick leave count toward attaining the 20 years of service the employee would need to retire early/now? Or does the employee need to have a minimum 20 years comp. service without any sick or vacation leave? Are there different rules for sick leave credit than the FERS? A: You must have enough years of actual service to be eligible to retire. Sick leave may only be added after you have met the age and service requirements.
Q: I worked part time for the Navy Exchange as a stock clerk from 1969 to 1971 while I was a student in high school. I joined federal service in 1981 where I am still employed under the CSRS system. Does the time I worked for the exchange count toward my federal service time? A: No.
Q: During the late 1960s, I worked part-time as an intermittent for a federal agency while in college. After graduation, I have worked as a full-time federal employee and under CSRS with only one break in service for a few years during the early 1970s. My SCD for retirement purposes has in the past been calculated as if the part-time/intermittent work during the late 1960s was full time. Recently, I discovered that about a year ago someone associated with my agency, I don’t know who, recalculated my retirement SCD and reduced the amount of credit I received for the part-time…
Q: I would like to know if my initial employment for the government from Aug. 18, 1983 through March 16, 1990, while I was covered under the CSRS retirement system, will count as creditable service even though I withdrew my retirement when I left the government in March 1990. I was re-employed by the government in May 1992 and opted for FERS coverage at that time. A: You will get credit for that time in determining your total years of service. If you redeposit that refund, plus accrued interest, it will also be used when computing the CSRS component of…
Q: I was employed by the Senate from 1980 through 1994. During that time, I had a break in service and took a refund. I was rehired by the Senate under FERS and now work for a different government agency (I am paying back most of my deposits and redeposits). I understood that some of my Senate CSRS years would be counted at 1.7 percent in the retirement formula. But my current agency tells me that “OPM made some changes to the law that affected your service from January 1, 1984, through December 31, 1986. Any period of FICA service…
Q: I’m a CSRS Offset employee with 18 years, 6½ months under straight CSRS, with 12 years, seven months at retirement April 30, 2012, and with at least 40 quarters earned under Social Security before federal service. 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, kept calling the WEP an offset, insisted that she never had to consider/calculate the offset amount for OPM, that OPM would do the calculations and she just…
Q: I am 58 years old, and I started work for the government in 1981. I have 30 years of service as a Defense Department civilian employee and four years as an active-duty service member. I am under the Civil Service Retirement System and plan to retire at age 62 with 38 years of total service. I have not bought back any of my active-duty time. What impact will that have on my retirement annuity and what impact will that have if I decide to take another job after I retire? A: Because you were first hired before Oct. 1,…