Q: I’m under the Civil Service Retirement System and have a period of about one year of nondeduction service immediately prior to Oct. 1, 1982. I also have about a year of nondeduction service starting Oct. 1, 1982. Which would it make more sense to make a deposit for, the year prior to Oct. 1, 1982, or the year commencing on that date? A: For nondeduction service performed before Oct. 1, 1982, you have the option of making a deposit and having your annuity reduced by 10 percent of the amount that would have been deducted from your salary plus…
Browsing: Civil Service Retirement System
Q: I retired at age 57 as a Civil Service Retirement System Offset employee. I’ve enjoyed a private industry position but have learned that at age 62, my CSRS annuity will be reduced. I can retire through the Social Security Administration to recoup the reduced amount, but will be subject to an earnings limit which wipes out the entire SSA pension. Am I missing something? Are offset retirees subject to the SSA earnings limits? A: Yes, they are. The earnings test will reduce your Social Security benefit by $1 for every $2 you earn above the limit, which is $14,160…
Q: I understand that under the Civil Service Retirement System, we can use unused sick leave toward federal service time that is used to determine the amount of time considered under the CSRS retirement pay formula. Also, I understand that under CSRS, the maximum time allowed is 42 years, which translates to 80 percent of the average salary in a worker’s “high-3” years. My questions are, if someone is covered by CSRS, if they add up their military and civil service time and get 42 years, can unused sick leave be added to the 42 years to get more than…
Q: I am a civilian federal employee who started with the government in September 1986. Is it true that no retirement deductions were taken until Jan. 1, 1989? If this is true, how can I get credit for the two-plus years during which no deductions were taken? A: If you were hired into a position that required deductions from your pay, you would have been covered by Civil Service Retirement Offset (CSRS and Social Security) for the months preceding Jan. 1, 1987, when the Federal Employees Retirement System went online. Your CSRS Offset time would have been converted to FERS…
Q. I’m a CSRS postal worker considering retirement. What happens to the money I’ve contributed to my pension when I retire or die while retired? A. Because you would have already paid taxes on the amount you contributed to the retirement system, a portion of your annuity will be nontaxable, following the rules published by the Internal Revenue Service. Therefore, if you have a spouse who is entitled to a survivor annuity, any contributions that haven’t been paid out to you would transfer over to his or her annuity and continue to be nontaxable until they ran out. If you have no spouse…
Q. I would like to know how much my retirement refund would be with 16 years at the GS-07 level . I know you would not have an exact amount due to federal taxes but a ball park would help. A. Your refund would be based on the amount of your contributions to the retirement fund, which you can find on your most recent pay slip, and accrued interest. Interest rates have varied from a high of 7.125 percent in 1994, when you entered on duty, to 3.125 percent in 2010.
Q. I am retiring in three years from CSRS. My husband is Air Force retired, therefore, we both have Tricare for Life and Medicare part A&B. I currently am not carrying any health care through my employer, but I plan to retire with a third health care plan through my CSRS. I know there is a five-year policy to have federal health care to be able to keep your insurance through retirement. However, I was told that my Tricare for Life qualifies me for the five-year federal plan coverage, and I can get the third policy during the last open…
Q: I am retired military and receiving retired military pay. I am a service academy graduate; that four years is not included in my military retirement. I just started working as a civil service employee. Can I receive creditable time for my four years at the academy for civil service retirement since it is not part of my military retirement pay? A: You can if you make a deposit to the civilian retirement system for that time. Talk to someone in your personnel office to find out how to do that.
Q: My husband will be retiring from the federal government in about 21 months and has been told that cannot elect the monthly survivor annuity (he is under CSRS) if his spouse is a federal employee. Is this true? He was told that this is “double-dipping.” A: What he was told isn’t true. Unless there is a court order assigning the survivor annuity to a former spouse, he is free to elect a survivor annuity for his current spouse, regardless of whether she works for the federal government, the private sector, or not at all.
Q. I was hired Aug. 15, 1983 ,and was placed in CSRS and have been in CSRS ever since. I now hear that employees that had less than five years in CSRS before Jan. 1, 1984, were supposed to have been converted to FERS. Am I in the wrong system? A. No, you’re in the right retirement system. The five-year rule only applies to retirement coverage determinations made after January 1, 1987, when an employee was covered by CSRS and Social Security. If such an employee didn’t have five years of CSRS coverage on Dec. 31, 1986, he would have…