Q. I am a Postal Service CSRS employee with 31 years. I am thinking about retiring on June 3, which is a Friday and the last day of the pay period. Can I work on that day and also retire on that same day. A. Yes. You can go to work on the last day of a pay period and, after having completed your 80 hours, retire at the end of that same day.
Q. I am totally confused on this retirement from federal service. I am retired military and worked about 10 years for DECA. I resigned in 2004 to take a job in the Middle East. Now I am going to be 62 soon and want to apply for retirement. I was told to contact OPM. I did so via e-mail and not DECA because I am not an active federal employee. I did talk to a human resources officer at DECA who said that I was not entitled to both retirements. Then I found a site that said I could get some…
Q. I have been working for 40 years in the government. I am trying to get my information together in order to prepare my retirement papers. I was in the Peace Corps for three years and would like to add those years to my 40 years of government service. I understand I will have to pay back the money I received as a volunteer in the Peace Corps ($75 a month, with interest). I would like to know what procedures do I follow in order to get the information I need in order to pay back the money I received.…
Q. I am a FERS employee with DoD. I plan to retire in December 2016 at age 61. At that time I will have 35 years of service. I will be 62 in February of 2017. My high three will be about $124,000. I am trying to estimate my take-home pay from Social Security and FERS. My FERS annuity will be about $49,000 per year. My Social Security will be about $22,000 per year. Do I have to pay federal taxes on FERS and Social Security, and state taxes (Michigan)? Social Security on the FERS annuity? Medicare on Social Security…
Q. My mother received survivor benefits from my father’s federal retirement annuity and she passed away in December. Can I now receive these benefits because I am receiving Social Security survivors benefits on my father’s account because I am a disabled child? A. If you weren’t receiving children’s benefits during your father’s lifetime, then it’s unlikely that you would be entitled to any now. To be sure, you can write OPM at retire@opm.gov or call the Retirement Information Center at 1-888-767-6738.
Q. While in the Army stationed in western Germany, I met and later married my wife, a German citizen. We were married in December 1974. She accompanied me to the U.S. in July 1977 with permanent resident status. She worked in the U.S. and the income was reported to the IRS on our joint return. In 1979, we returned to Germany where she worked for the military PX and the commissary and was paid in local currency as a German. This was done in accordance to the Host Nation agreements in place. She did not receive a W2 from either…
Q. I’m a FERS DoD employee, planning to retire on Dec 31, 2011 to maximize my annual leave lump-sum payment. Dec 31 is the end of a pay period, and the end of the leave year. It’s also the end of my 104 week waiting period for my step increase from step 5 to step 6, which is due on Jan. 1, 2012. I understand that annual leave lump-sum payments are calculated based on what I would have earned had I stayed in federal service. Am I considered to have fulfilled my waiting period, since the step increase would become…
Q. I’m a reservist with over 17 years of active-duty time who is looking at becoming an Air Reserve technician eligible for FERS. If I buy back my active-duty time and later become eligible for an active-duty retirement as a reservist through military deployments, making my active-duty time equal 20 or more years, can I collect both retirements without waiting until I turn 60? Also, is there a requirement to buy back my years or enter the FERS prior to hitting 20 years of active-duty service? I’m told that if I stay on active-duty orders until 20, I will become…
Q. I was married to my husband for almost 25 years. I worked under CSRS for 42 years. I have been divorced since 1998. My ex-husband recently passed away. I believe he was on disability retirement. He was not a government employee. Can I draw anything from his pension. I am 69 years old. A. We don’t know anything about nonfederal benefits, so we can’t comment on whether you’d be entitled to anything from his former employer. On the other hand, you may be eligible for a a former spouse Social Security survivor benefit. The only way to find out…
Q. My service computation date, after the buyback of my military time, changed to July 1998. I was hired by Customs and Border Protection in December 2007. I am getting confusing information from different sources. Can I now retire at age 60, with over 20 years of federal civilian time? A. You have to have five years of actual FERS service to retire. Therefore, you wouldn’t be eligible to do that until the five years are up in 2012.