Q. For FERS retirements, what are the differences between a deferred retirement and a postponed retirement, especially as they pertain to FEHB benefits? A. Some employees who retire under the MRA+10 provision (minimum retirement age with at least 10 but fewer than 30 years of service) postpone the receipt of their annuities to reduce or eliminate the age penalty, which is 5 percent for every year they are younger than 62. Regardless of when they activate it, if they were enrolled in the Federal Employees Health Benefit and/or Federal Employees Group Life Insurance programs for the five consecutive years before…
Q. I am a career federal employee under the old CSRS who has approximately 37 years of federal service. I just recently put in my paperwork for Voluntary Separation Incentive Payment. I was wondering approximately how long it would be after I retire before I receive my lump sum annual leave and payment. I know there is a major backlog in the processing of “exact” annuity payments upon retirement, but can I assume these two payments are different in that regard? A. Your lump-sum leave payment and Voluntary Separation Incentive Payment will come from your agency. Your payroll office can…
Q. My wife is a Civil Service Retirement System Offset retiree. She understands the offset of CSRS annuity by an SSA amount. She turned 62 on April 27. Her CSRS annuity was unchanged for April and May. She received two answers from OPM regarding whether or not she needed to sign up for SSA. One said she did not need to sign up for SSA at age 62 — it would be handled by OPM and she would receive two checks. One said she did need to sign up for SSA because the offset would take place when she qualified…
Q. I retired as a CSRS employee six years ago. While I was a federal employee, I dropped my individual health plan when my husband, also a CSRS employee, enrolled in a family health plan to cover us and our children. My husband is retiring and will keep the family health plan. Does he need to provide a survivor annuity for me so I can keep federal health insurance if he dies before me? We have been told that he does not need to provide a survivor annuity for me, because I dropped my FEHB plan to be covered by…
Q. I am a part-time regular with 14 years of service in the U.S. Postal Service under FERS. Can I retire at age 61 at any time and defer my pension until age 62 without penalty? Can I continue my health care coverage? A. You could retire under the MRA+10 provision and defer the receipt of your annuity to age 62, thus avoiding the age penalty. While your FEHB coverage would end 31 days after you retired, you could re-enroll when you applied for your annuity. In the interim, you could continue your coverage for up to 18 months under the Temporary Continuation of Coverage provision, for which you’d pay…
Q. I am a CSRS employee with 45 years of service. I am planning to retire at the end of the year and was told that all of my retirement contribution after 41 years and 11 months will be returned to me. Is that true? If so, is any interest paid? A. Yes, you will receive a refund of your excess contributions, with interest. You will also be given the opportunity to purchase additional annuity not subject to the 80 percent limit.
Q. I’m a GS–15/10 under FERS, so I’m subject to the pay cap. I typically roll over the allowed 240 hours of annual leave, and I frequently have restored leave. If I retire partway through the year, will the pay cap affect my lump–sum payment for leave? Would I be paid for the total of those three amounts? A. Lump-sum annual leave payments aren’t subject to the 80 percent pay cap.
Q. Should I be worried, when I retire from FERS in seven years, that I will not receive a retirement check from the military and a FERS civil service retirement check? I returned to civil service after retiring from the Air Force after 20 years. I receive a monthly annuity in addition a monthly VA disability check. I received my FERS benefit estimate report for buying back my recent active-duty time. The estimate clearly favors that I buy my time back. All references lead me to believe I will be able to collect my full military retirement annuity, VA disability check and…
Q. I retired from the postal service in 2003. My health benefits continued under the federal employee health benefit plan. Now that I am turning 65, I need to know how I will be affected by Medicare A, B and D. I have Blue Cross Blue Shield’s Federal Employees Plan. What is automatic and what should I choose, if anything? A. While you will have to apply for Medicare Part A, which you have already paid for through payroll deductions, it’s up to you to decide if your need Part B, for which you would pay premiums. On the other hand, OPM and most…
Q. I am a CSRS employee, hired in 1979 and contemplating retirement April 3. I will be subject to the windfall elimination provision since I earned 40 credits of Social Security eligibility before federal employment. But my spouse is also Social Security eligible and started receiving Social Security benefits of more than $1,900/month (gross) last month, whereas the SSA has estimated that my Social Security benefits would be approximately $385/month (gross). Would I be eligible for spousal Social Security benefits? Also, a financial planner has recommended that I roll over my substantial TSP account balance before I turn 70½ (October 2017), but I…