Q. Do former CSRS employees eligible for a deferred annuity receive an annual cost-of-living increase for deferred annuity payment, or is amount static? A. Those who apply for a deferred annuity will have it calculated as though they had retired on the day they left government. It will not be increased by any cost-of-living adjustments that were applied to annuities between that time and the date on which their deferred annuity begins. However, from that point forward, those annuities will be increased by any COLAs that are applied to other annuities.
Browsing: COLA
Q. I’m retired under the Federal Employees Retirement System, and have been retired for over 10 years. I was injured on the job, unable to perform the work I was doing, and have had to change to an office job. I was lucky enough to be employed by the state and had really good insurance. So I opted out of my FERS medical benefits and received a larger annuity monthly payment. I didn’t think at the time that double insurance was needed. I am 47 now, still disabled and unable to return to my government job. I continue to receive an…
Q. Regarding when my COLA will start: If I retired Jan. 31, 2011, am I a January retiree or a February retiree? I know that the 2012 COLA is 3.6 percent. Because I wasn’t on the annuity roll in December, will I get 3 percent or 3.3 percent? A. You won’t be eligible for any cost-of-living adjustment until January 2013. Because you will be on the annuity roll in February, that COLA will cover only the 10 months you were on the annuity roll, and equal 5/6 percent on whatever it turns out to be.
Q. I am A CSRS employee who is retiring Dec. 31 and wish to elect a partial annuity for my husband. He’s a retired civil service employee and receives his own pension. We’ve decided that about 25 percent of my annuity would be sufficient for him. However, on the Application for Immediate Retirement Form, Section F, it seems that I can only elect 55 percent of a fixed dollar amount. If I do this, say 55 percent of 50,000 per year ($27,500), would this amount still be indexed for future cost-of-living adjustments, or would it always remain at $27,500? I’ve asked the retirement…
Q. I am planning on retiring at the end of December. I am in the Civil Service Retirement System and have over 31 years in the legislative branch, where I am still employed. I also have another 14 months in the executive branch, for a total of 32 years, five months. I will be 53 in late December, so will I be penalized for not quite reaching age 53? I realize I already have to take a 4 percent reduction because I’m under age 55. My retirement counselor advised me to retire at the end of November instead of December so I…
Q. I am planning on retiring Dec. 31 after 41 years of federal service. Should I retire Nov. 30 instead to take advantage of the 3.6 percent cost-of-living adjustment, and will I be eligible for the COLA that will take effect Dec. 1? A. If you retired on Nov. 30, you would be eligible for 1/12th of the COLA increase, not the entire amount. That’s because COLAs are based on the number of months that a retiree is on the annuity roll.
Q: There has been talk that there may be a COLA increase this year. If a person retires on Dec. 31, would they be eligible for the COLA? A: No. If you retired on Dec. 31, 2011, you’d receive 11/12ths of the 2013 COLA in your January 2013 annuity payment. You would have to retire no later than Nov. 30, 2011, to receive a full COLA adjustment in 2013.
Q: Will my spouse receive cost-of-living adjustments on her survivor annuity after my death? A: Yes.
Q: If you accept an early retirement with VSIP at age 54, then there is no COLA increase until age 62. How is the annuity computed at 62? Do the COLA increases accumulate over those eight years? A: No, they don’t accumulate. The annuity you receive when you retire will remain frozen until you reach age 62, at which point you’ll be eligible for your first cost-of-living increase.
Q. I am the disabled dependent survivor of my father who was a federal employee for 30 years. I collect Social Security Disability Income and Medicaid. Collecting the disabled child survivor annuity would put me over the unearned income limit to collect Medicaid, and I can’t afford insurance. The state of Maine has a Medicare Savings Plan that I could join but the income limits are very low and very strict. The income limit is $1362 per month. I spoke with some legal specialists in the field of Medicaid and they said that my SSDI COLAs would not affect my eligibility for this Medicare Savings…