Q: I have been on disability for several years but my husband worked, so we were told I could still be covered by his insurance. After his retirement, we were told we had to take Medicare Part B. The problem is that I am being penalized by Social Security for not taking it sooner. I was also being covered under my OPM with the VA retirement. I called Medicare and Social Security. Medicare told me that I should not be penalized because of the coverage of OPM. I called Social Security back and they told me that Medicare didn’t know…
Q: I am a FERS employee. I will have 22 years and seven months in January 2011 and also I will be 55 in that month. If I retire at the age of 56, do I qualify to get into the special retirement system? A: Without knowing your year of birth, I’m going to have to assume that you were born before 1948 and will reach your minimum retirement age when you are 55. Is so, with your age and years of service, you would only be able to retire under the MRA+10 provision (minimum retirement age and at least…
Q: I am a USPS/FERS employee. Will I get credit for months and days in excess of a complete year, or are the computations done by rounding down or up to the nearest whole year? I retire Jan. 1, 2011. My total time is 30 years, three months and 17 days. A: Annuity computations are based on whole years and months. Any left-over days are combined with unused sick leave to create additional months. Any days in excess of a month are dropped.
Q: I’m 55 years old. My health required me to retire after working 24 years for the DoD at FRC-E. I worked under the CSRS due to my employer’s mistake, which was discovered on my retirement. FRC-E paid all required SSI funds to make me current as a CSRS Offset employee, and I have been approved by SSI for Medicare. I was told I would receive half of my retirement payment from DoD and the other half from SSI. I get the DoD’s portion but cannot convince SSI to pay anything. What can I do to correct this problem, or…
Q: I retired voluntarily on an immediate annuity. I am 56 years old and I have 35 years of federal service. I switched to FERS in 1987, applied and granted SSDI just before I retired. Will I get the SRS? A: Yes. However, if you had taken FERS disability retirement, the answer would have been no.
Q: I will be retiring soon from the civil service. I am covered under CSRS Offset due to my earlier employment as a career civilian government employee under another federal retirement system from which I have a (suspended, for now) pension. I worked part time after 2002 under a temporary, intermittent appointment between my two career federal government positions. I have almost two years of eligibility for prior service credit from those years upon a deposit to cover that period in CSRS. I understand that even though am now covered under CSRS Offset I will have to make a full…
Q: I am a postal worker under CSRS and I will be retiring on Dec. 31 with 37 years. Will my unused annual leave be taxed on my 2011 income? A: Your lump-sum payment will be taxable in the year it is received.
Q: I have 30 years of full-time service under CSRS and wish to reduce to a part-time permanent employee for my last year of service. When I switch to part time, I understand that I will be required to pay a larger portion of my health care insurance premium. When I retire at the end of this year, how much will I pay to continue my health insurance? Will it be the percent I have paid through my full-time years, the increased amount I will pay as a part-time employee for the last year or some other amount? A: As…
Q: My permanent position in the states is a GS-12. If I deploy overseas for a GS-13, is that considered in calculating my high-3? A: If your basic pay overseas is greater and it falls within your highest 36 consecutive months of average basic pay, it will be included in your high-3.
Q: I am a recent widow of a CSRS Offset employee. I, too, was a CSRS employee (not offset). The survivor benefit that has been calculated for me is equivalent to 28 percent of my husband’s retirement benefit when he died. This doesn’t seem accurate, although it may be. I’ve spent nearly a year with OPM and Social Security trying to identify where their numbers are coming from, with no success. Can you recommend an expert that I can contact to assist me? Nobody, not even Social Security, seems to know how the rules were applied and I am going…