Q: I’m a Federal Employees Retirement Service employee, 54 years old with 25 years of service. I have a 91-year-old father with Alzheimer’s disease who requires full-time care. Is there any program where I could take an early retirement to care for him? Also, I have an upcoming background investigation due. If I didn’t provide this, could I be fired, but still be eligible for immediate retirement? A: Along with receiving approval for the use of annual or sick leave, you could request up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act. Whether you would…
Browsing: Early retirement
Q: According to the American Postal Workers Union, the grievance to give postal employees who took early out in 2008 and 2009 severance pay is now 15 months old. Is this going to happen? I voluntarily left, moved over for the next person, then in October 2009, they came out with the $15,000 buyout. I feel that postal employees who retired early really got the shaft. A: No one who accepts an offer to retire early is eligible for severance pay. On the other hand, what you may be asking is whether the U.S. Postal Service is going to give…
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 am a 39-year-old federal employee. I have nine years of Federal Employees Retirement System-covered federal service. I also bought back eight years of Army service time two years ago. I am thinking of resigning my position and starting a small business. Would it benefit me to wait three years and reach 20 years of creditable service? And if so, what benefits will I be eligible for at my minimum retirement age? A: You wouldn’t be eligible for any benefits when you reached your minimum retirement age. With fewer than 20 years of service, you’d be eligible for a…
Q: My husband has been working for the U.S. Postal Service for 26 years. He is 53 years old. He is entitled to Federal Employees Retirement System benefits at age 56, but he wants to retire now due to health issues. Can he do that? A: The only way he could retire before reaching his minimum retirement age would be if he was approved for disability retirement. To find out if he is eligible, he’d have to file for disability retirement and, at the same time, file for Social Security disability benefits. His personnel office can help him do that.
Q: I’m under the Federal Employees Retirement System and plan to retire at minimum retirement age (56) with less than 30 years of service. Is the 5 percent per year penalty based on each year short of 30 years, or is it based on each year short of age 62? I’ve seen it explained both ways. Also, is the actual penalty based on fractions (months) or whole years? A: If you retire under the MRA+10 provision (minimum retirement age with at least 10 years of service), your annuity will be reduced by 5 percent for every year (or 5/12 of…
Q: As a Civil Service Retirement System employee who will have 30 years of service by mid-2011 but wont be 55 until the end of 2013, is there any way to retire in 2011? If so, what kinds of penalties would I face? A: The only way you could retire before reaching age 55 would be if your agency were to offer you an opportunity to do so. Early outs are only offered when an agency has received approval from the Office of Personnel Management based on the agency’s need to downsize or restructure its work force; those opportunities usually…
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: Is it better to retire at 42 years old with 22 years of service ($2,900 a month), or go for 30 years and be 50 years old ($5,200 a month)? I feel it would be smarter to retire at 42; it would allow me to start another career. A: As far as this site is concerned, you’ve come to the Department of Unanswerable Questions. Only you can decide what makes better sense, always keeping in mind that the future is unknowable. What might seem like a good decision now might not look as good somewhere down the road. What…
Q: I am a Vietnam veteran with a disability rated at 40 percent. I will be 64 in September and plan on drawing my Social Security retirement benefits at that time. Will either one of these government plans be affected by the other? Also, do I receive any extra credit in my Social Security earnings for the 16 quarters served on active duty from 1966 to 1969? A: You will be able to receive both your Veterans Affairs Department disability pay and your Social Security benefit. Your Social Security benefit will be based on the number of credits you earned…