Q: I am 52 and a FERS employee with 30 years of service. I’m thinking about deferring my retirement until I reach the MRA of 56. My questions are: When you defer you lose: the SSI at 56? You need to be in the service for five years to get the health care? What if I come back to the government a year before I reach my MRA of 56, do I then get the SSI when I retire at 56? I know I would lose the health care without the continuous five years. I am more concerned with the…
Browsing: Deferred retirement
Q: I am 70 years old. I was in the military for three years, from 1981 to 1984, then worked 2.5 years for the Army as a civilian. In 2009, I worked for a VA hospital for 16 months. While at the VA hospital, I bought in my military time. Do I have enough time to draw any retirement? Or, how much additional time would I need in the federal system? A: If you had at least 20 years of service, you would have been eligible for a deferred retirement at age 60; if at least five years of service…
Q: Thank you for your recent article on key dates for retirement in the Oct. 4 edition of Federal Times. I have a question that wasn’t completely answered by the article. I am a veteran with more than 22 years of active-duty service. I joined the Food and Drug Administration two years ago, so I am under the Federal Employees Retirement System. I turned 51 this year and plan to retire sometime between age 62 and 65. I will not have 20 years of service at age 60, but I certainly will have five years of service at age 62.…
Q: I have a co-worker who is under the Federal Employees Retirement System. She has a little more than 24 years of federal service and just turned 49. She has gone through two performance improvement periods and is facing the possibility of involuntary separation because of performance issues. She has been given a notice of intention to separate her from service. She responded with some reasons why it shouldn’t happen at all and also with other possible solutions, such as a downgrade and/or transfer, or putting her on leave/leave without pay until she is eligible for a discontinued service retirement.…
Q: I work for the Federal Bureau of Prisons. In November, I will have 20 years’ service in law enforcement and will be 49 years old. If I decide to retire right there and then, do I have to wait an extra year to collect benefits? Can I retire at age 49 with 20 years of law enforcement plus 4 years of active-duty military service? A: No, you can’t retire on an immediate annuity at age 49. You’ll have to wait until age 50 to retire under the special provision for law enforcement officers. You could, of course, resign from…
Q: I have a total of 25 years of federal service as a Federal Employees Retirement System employee. I am 51 years old and thinking of leaving and working for a private company. How can I find out what my pension will be when I reach the minimum retirement age of 62? And how can I find out how much I would get right now if I was to take my pension money out now and roll it over into an IRA or ROTH account? I don’t like the fact that my spouse will only get 50 percent of my…
My Feb. 22 column explaining the difference between deferred and postponed annuities generated a lot of questions from former employees, some of whom are just realizing they might be eligible for a deferred annuity. They should also pay attention to the increased benefits that would become available if a recently introduced bill becomes law. A deferred annuity is one that is payable to a former employee who left service before being eligible for an immediate annuity and who didn’t take a refund of his retirement contributions. If you are a former Civil Service Retirement System employee who had at least…
Q: I am a Federal Employees Retirement System employee who has bought back her active-duty military time. I’m resigning with 31 years effective July 5, 2010, but I haven’t reached my minimum retirement age. From my understanding, I can apply for retirement three months prior to reaching my MRA (Oct 14, 2011), without any problems. I was also told that I will not have any health and medical benefits — which I don’t have because I am a dependent wife of a retiree. I just want to make sure that I will have no problems when I apply for my…
Q. I am a FERS employee and have been employed for 25 years with federal service. I am 50 years old. My minimum retirement age is 56. If I choose to take deferred retirement now, at what age will I begin receiving an annuity? How will my annuity be calculated? A. You can’t elect to take a deferred retirement now. You can resign from the government and apply for a deferred annuity at a later date. Because you have at least 20 years of creditable service, you could apply for a deferred annuity at age 60.
Q. I am 36 years old and plan on retiring at age 40 from the VA, giving me 10 years of service, during which time I have been continuously enrolled in FEHB. I know I will not be eligible for my annuity until around age 60, which means I will not be eligible for FEHB from age 40-60. However, once I reach age 60 or so, and start collecting my annuity, will I be eligible to enroll in the FEHB again? I know you have to enrolled for the five years of service prior to retirement, but does that mean…