Q. I am 55 years old and took an early retirement offer with an incentive from the Postal Service in August of last year. I had 26 years of full service. I am considering an opportunity to become re-employed part time with the U.S. Forest Service as a GS4 information receptionist at the local visitor center. This is a seasonal position lasting six months a year. How will this affect my Thrift Savings Plan withdrawals and my special retirement supplement when I turn 56? I retired as an EAS-18 postmaster.
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Q. In the first year retirement, you can get your full check after you retire, say, in June, but if you already made $60,000 at that point in combined income with your wife, do you end up paying 85 percent of it back?
Q. Can you please explain “catch 62”? Also, can you qualify for Social Security after age 62 if you fall under the parameters of catch 62? In other words, do Social Security or CSRS check your eligibility only once at age 62, or do they check periodically after age 62? Can your CSRS pension be re-examined if you qualify for Social Security after you reached age 62, i.e. age 65?
Q. I will avoid the windfall elimination provision if I have 30 years of substantive earnings. Is that still the case if 15 of those earning years for Social Security occurred under CSRS offset? Also, I am 66. Can I receive Social Security, even though I am still working under CSRS? If I can collect Social Security, in a few years, once I retire, how will that affect the Social Security I would collect? Would it be reduced or my CSRS annuity be reduced?
Q. I returned to federal service at age 63, after a 30-year break in service, as a CSRS offset employee. I am trying to understand the rule for applying the offset to my CSRS benefit. I know there are two calculations to get the offset amount and the lesser of the two is the one applied. I would have qualified for Social Security at age 62 as a result of my employment record outside government service and before returning to federal service. The first calculation seems to indicate 62 as the age to apply the offset calculation; therefore, I would…
Q. I retired under CSRS and chose a survivor benefit for my wife. My wife worked in private industry and contributed to Social Security and started collecting a Social Security pension. My last letter from OPM said my wife would receive a survivor benefit of $670 per month. How would the offset provision affect her monthly income in the case of my demise?
Q. I plan to retire at my minimum retirement age, 56. I should get the FERS special retirement supplement, although I realize it may be reduced or suspended if my earnings exceed the limit. If I do receive the supplement but at age 62 do not apply for Social Security until the full retirement age of 67, do I still get the higher payment, or does the supplement reduce the amount anyway?
Q. I will complete nine years of civil service as of August, as well as 22 years of military service. If I apply for Voluntary Separation Incentive Pay, what, if anything, can I expect to receive?
Q. I am a CSRS retiree, and I am not eligible for Social Security. I have provided for a full survivor annuity if I die before my wife. She is self-employed and will be eligible for a Social Security benefit when she retires. Will her Social Security benefit be reduced at that time due to her survivor annuity? Will her survivor annuity be reduced because of her Social Security benefit?
Q. The following statement was made in an answer to a question ask about post-1956 deposit: “You can’t get a refund of the deposit you made for your active-duty service. What’s done is done. If you retire at age 62 and aren’t eligible for a Social Security benefit at that time, you’ll never have to worry about losing those years and having your annuity recomputed.” I will retire at age 60 and have paid in a post-1956 deposit. I am in CSRS and will have 41 years and eight months with the post-56 deposit (eight years, six months of military…