Q. Recently, I was informed that human resources made and error when I was recruited to my position. I was given four additional steps to meet my salary needs to accept the position. HR has learned that they were not authorized to give and has taken them away. This has now created an overpayment. Secondly, I was allowed to maintain my previous station pay scale. My salary has been cut by approximately $18,000. How does this affect my retirement? If I request a waiver or hearing, will my last two years of salary (which are part of my high-3) be…
Browsing: High-3
Q. I am a CSRS employee who is thinking of retiring Sept. 30 to beat any chance that Congress will pass a high-5 in place of the high-3 average pay for fiscal 2014 starting Oct. 1. Would I benefit more retiring earlier (say, Sept. 28) because of any existing rules? I just thought the later in the month the better, but I noted an answer to a person that they would get two weeks more pay retiring July 27 in place of July 31.
Q. I am a part-time employee (20 hours per week) and have been for 17 years. But I worked full time previously for seven years. If I retire at age 62 with 30 or so years and go full time my last three years at GS-12, will I get the high-3 even with part-time previously worked?
Q. Is Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance, survivor benefit and Thrift Savings Plan matching based on GS base pay or firefighter base pay?
Q. I am a federal employee under CSRS and I am eligible for retirement. I was temporarily promoted to GS-12 for two years and the demoted back to a GS-10. Does the time I was a GS-12 count toward my high-3 retirement calculation?
Q. I am a 60-year-old FERS employee with 19 years and four months of service. I have 2,000 sick leave hours, which I know at Jan. 1, 2014, will get full credit. I have an opportunity to work in the private sector now with increased pay. Which is better: to retire now and receive my pension (although at a reduced rate) and maintain my enrollment in Federal Employees Health Benefits or to defer my annuity to age 62 and then re-enroll in FEHB?
Q. If I resign at age 51 with 25 years of service, will I lose the government matching funds that went into my Thrift Savings Plan? Will I be able to receive a deferred annuity at age 62? What would that be — 25 percent of high-3?
Q. I served a combined 10 years between military and civil service. I also paid the lump sum for my military time when I worked for the post office. How do I figure out my pension, and how do I go about getting it since I no longer work for the government?
Q. In 1998, I was injured and received benefits from the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs. I left the agency and went to work for a different agency under FERS. As a result, I received a “loss of wage earning capacity” every month from the 1998 injury. In 2005, I received a disability retirement as a result of a different injury. Should my high-3 average have included the loss of wage-earning capacity I was receiving at the time of the disability application and approval?
Q. With no pay raises, assuming one is eligible, at what point does the take home pay in CSRS retirement (after all of the necessary adjustments) pretty much equal the take-home pay while working? It seems to fall around 35 or 36 years, or 68 percent to 70 percent? I know you can do a retirement calculator, but that gives you an estimate of gross.