Q. I am a FERS employee who will have approximately 100 hours of sick leave by the time I plan to leave my federal position (March 1, 2013) under the MRA+10 policy. I plan to defer my pension disbursement as I will be 52 when I leave federal service. How will my unused sick time figure into my deferred annuity calculation? A. It will be added to your actual service time and used in the computation of your annuity. However, your annuity will only be increased if your leftover hours of actual service and sick leave hours add up to…
Browsing: annuity calculation
Q. I am a postal worker who started my 25th year of service in May. I am buying back my military time of six years and will have it paid at the end of this year. I will be 49 this year. Since my minimum retirement age is 56, is there any chance of receiving the Social Security supplement between 50 and 55 if I retired under a Voluntary Early Retirement Authority? Must I be 56 regardless of the number of years of service to receive it? When I pay off my military time later this year, how is the…
Q. The Office of Personnel Management defines part-time employment as 16 to 32 hours a week, and full time is “generally” considered 40 hours. What about 33 hours, or any schedule between 33 and 39? How is that classified? I’m guessing 33 hours would be classified full time, but the pay and annuity calculation would be based on the actual number of hours worked. Is that correct? I’m also wondering if one can apply for full-time positions and negotiate a schedule between 33 and 39 hours (provided the agency is amenable). A. According to OPM, “Once an employee works between…
Q. I’m a DoD federal employee with three years of military service included in my FERS retirement. I know the three years count toward my pension calculation, but do they count toward the supplemental Social Security benefit? I’m eligible to retire in October and will be 56 with just over 30½ years of service including my military time. Will the supplement be calculated at 27½ years or 30½? A. Your special retirement supplement will be based solely on your period of FERS employment. Unless you made a deposit for your three years of military service, they won’t be included when…
Q. When the calculations are made for annuity payments, are actual earnings or base pay used in calculations? My base pay is higher than the actual pay in each of the high-3. A. I believe you misunderstand the meaning of the words “base pay.” Base pay is the amount of pay from which retirement contributions are taken, not the amount you actually receive, nor the figure that is shown on a pay chart that exceeds the amount payable because of a pay cap.
Q. I am an air traffic controller under FERS who will retire with 25 years of service at age 49. I also have five years of military service that I’ve bought back, bringing my total to 30 years. I’m unclear on the manner in which my military service will be calculated in my retirement annuity. One possibility would be to declare military service time as part of the 30-year requirement to convert all the years values to 1.7 percent, instead of 1.7 percent for the first 20, then 1 percent after that. The legal language has historically read “30 years of creditable service,”…
Q. I retired from the government Nov. 30, 2011, as a GS-13, age 56 with 30 years of service. I started a new job where my earnings will exceed my previous salary as a fed. I have been receiving partial annuity payments as expected, but the Office of Personnel Management just sent FERS supplement payments for Dec. 11 to March 12. Will I have to repay the supplement for January to March 2012, because my earnings in 2012 have already exceeded the $14,000 maximum additional income limit? The rules I have read talk about calculating the supplement based on earnings…
Q: I have been a full-time Federal employee for 37-plus years under the Civil Service Retirement System. I am considering retiring by year’s end and working on a part-time basis (64 hours per pay period) for the next six to eight months. Will this affect my monthly retirement annuity calculation? A: Yes, it will. However, the shorter the period of part-time service is, the less its impact. You’ll find the formula used to compute an annuity with part-time service on the Office of Personnel Management website here (scroll down to Section 55B2.1-1). Although this section refers to Federal Employees Retirement…
Q: I have 10 years of legislative branch service and 10 years of executive branch service, all under FERS. If I retire under the executive branch, do I still receive a 1.7 percent per year worked annuity for my legislative branch service? Or are all the years of legislative service treated the same as executive branch service and receive only a 1 percent per year worked annuity? A: Your legislative branch service will be computed using the enhanced formula; the remaining years will be computed using the standard formula.
Q: Where does money go after I have the maximum amount of time under the Civil Service Retirement System? I am still working at the U.S. Postal Service. A: After a CSRS employee has 41 years and 11 months of service, he is entitled to the maximum amount of earned annuity, which is 80 percent. If he continues to work, contributions will still be deducted from his salary; at retirement, he can either receive a refund of those contributions or use the money to buy additional annuity which, like unused sick leave, isn’t subject to the 80 percent limit.