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…
Browsing: CSRS annuity computation
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 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 read with interest the question about annuity reduction, and found your response confusing. The question was: “I am a retired federal employee and I was receiving a monthly annuity of $4,200, but when I recently turned 62, OPM reduced my annuity to $3,550,and told me it was because I was eligible to collect Social Security benefits, even though I am not collecting Social Security benefits and do not plan to do so until I am at least 65. I did have two years of active military service, which I paid for while I was working, so that those…
Q: I am an employee under the Civil Service Retirement System Offset program, and I plan on retiring at age 64. I know my annuity will be reduced for the period of time I was an offset employee. I have dealt with the local Social Security Administration office and I am concerned; they had no idea what the offset is. Does the Office of Personnel Management deal with SSA experts for the offset? A: OPM and the Social Security Administration have a file-matching system that allows OPM to accurately reduce a CSRS Offset annuity by the amount of Social Security…
Q: I read that the best day to retire under the Civil Service Retirement System at the end of leave year 2013 is Dec. 28, which confuses me because we’re always told to retire the end of the month or within the first three days of the month. I know the Dec. 28 is the end of a pay period, but wouldn’t it work out just as well if I retired on Jan. 2 or 3 since I’d get paid for the holiday of Jan. 1? A: You can retire on any day that suits you. However, keep these facts…
Q: I am getting ready to retire. I worked for the government from 1968 to 1972, then worked in the private sector and earned my 40 quarters in Social Security. I returned to work for the federal government in 1984 as a Civil Service Retirement System Offset employee. I was told that because I earned my 40 quarters from the private sector that my government annuity would not be reduced: I will get a full government annuity and a full Social Security check. Is that right? A: By law, your CSRS annuity will be reduced at age 62 by the…
Q: I had 13 years of Social Security employment (max contribution) before entering the Civil Service Retirement System Offset in 1991. I am 64 years old and considering retirement at age 66. Do CSRS Offset years count in meeting the 30-year requirement to avoid the windfall elimination provision? A: All years of Social Security-covered employment in which you had substantial earnings count toward the 30 years needed to avoid the windfall elimination provision.
Q: Is a CSRS pension taxed on the initial full calculated pension amount or on the amount after reduction for survivor benefit (I realize there is further reduction of taxable income to account for my contributions throughout the years)? A: It’s based on the reduced amount, not the amount you would have been entitled to if you hadn’t elected a survivor annuity.