Q: In November 2011, I will be 65 and start Medicare Part A. I am retired military and currently have FEHB and Tricare. Tricare is telling me I will have to take Medicare Parts A and B to keep Tricare. I plan to continue to work past age 65 and would like to keep my FEHB. Is there an easy way to determine the best mix of FEHB, Medicare and Tricare, both while I’m working and when I retire? A: None that I know of. However, if any of our readers who are or have been in a similar position…
Q: Is there a FERS early out penalty (five per year under MRA or 60, etc?)? If I took an early-out with 25 years of service at 53 years old would my retirement (not TSP) be reduced a percentage for each year under MRA or 60? A: Under FERS, the age penalty is waived for any employee who accepts an early retirement offer.
Q: I am a FERS employee of DHS. I entered duty in May 1994 as a 6(C) Law Enforcement Coverage employee — job series GS 1801-5 (before my 37th birthday). In October 1995, I transferred to a non-6(C) position and was promoted to GS 1801-12 (7 years). In October 2002 I was back to a 6(C)-covered GS1801-12 position. Since early 2004 to now I am under the 6(C) coverage and have moved up to GS 1801-14. I have seven years of non-6(C) coverage; am I subjected to the mandatory retirement at age of 57? A: No. According to OPM, “If…
Q: I am a new civil servant, hired in April of 2011 after 24 years of active duty time in the Air Force (combined AD and Reserves). If I understand the leave accrual policy correctly, I am not eligible for an increased leave accrual rate unless I served during a war declared by Congress or during an expeditionary period where a medal is authorized. Am I correct in assuming if I was on active duty orders but did not deploy to a Global War On Terror area (Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.) I am only eligible for four hours per pay period? I…
Q: I will be 57 in June with more than 25 years civil service. I was put in FERS even though I started civil service in Aug 1985 in Sigonella, Sicily. I was told I was never invested until I came to states in 1987. My question: If I retire in June, would I be responsible for the 5 percent deduction for MRA? I have asked several people and still do not understand. A: Although you have reached your minimum retirement age (MRA), you have fewer than 30 years of service. If you were to retire before reaching 30 years of service,…
You’ve all heard about the Office of Personnel Management’s problems in getting newly retired employees on the annuity roll in a timely manner. While some of the fault lies at OPM, other roadblocks are at work here. Sheer volume is one of them, with early-outs and buyouts generating floods of retirement applications. Of equal importance is the uneven quality of the paperwork OPM receives. If your application is incomplete or includes contradictory information, it can delay the processing of your case. In this column, I’ll talk about what you can do to increase the likelihood that your application will be…
Q: Do you have a reference for a list of federal agencies that are hiring GS 1102/Contracting personnel under the Annuitant Program? A: No.
Q: I will retire from the federal probation system in July 2012 at the mandatory age of 57. Can I be hired by the TSA in a non-law enforcement position and continue to receive my federal retirement? If not, what will be the arrangement? A: In most cases, the salary of your new position would be offset by the amount of your annuity. If you worked for at least one year, you’d receive a supplemental annuity based on that service. If you worked for at least five years, your annuity would be recalculated as if you had never retired. On…
Q: I am currently making payments to buy back my military service time so that it can be counted toward my FERS retirement and want to know if I can now make a partial withdrawal to pay a Defense Finance and Accounting Services debt? I have been making payments toward a military deposit for more than four years and only have less than a year until I have finished paying the amount requested, but now am faced with a debt action for an erroneous payment that happened over three years ago. I understand I have alternative options — i.e. hearing, waiver…
Q: Regarding the article in the May 16 Federal Times “How to Calculate SRS Benefit”: The first paragraph says that employees are trying to find out what their annuities would be if they get the opportunity to retire early or are RIF’d. However, the article doesn’t seem to address retiring early until the second to last paragraph. So if someone is 50 years old with 20 years of service of any age with 25, which is the criteria to retire early, they won’t get the special retirement supplement? They would have to be the MRA with 20 or 25 years…