Q. I will be retiring next week from federal law enforcement. I live and work in the San Francisco area. I was initially provided with a calculation based on an average high-3 salary of $145,250 and was told I would receive a net of $6,050 per month. However, when I visited Employee Express this morning, I saw that the agency is now listing my high-3 average as $116,000 and my expected net monthly annuity payment would be around $5,000. I pulled my W-2s for the past three years and confirmed that my top average 3-year salary is $145,250. I’m awaiting…
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Q. My husband was employed by the federal government from June 1970 through July 1971and was covered under CSRS. He resigned and withdrew his CSRS contributions. He returned to work in the federal government in 1999 on a temporary appointment for a few months. In January 2000, he was appointed to a permanent federal position and began contributing to FERS. He left that permanent position in the fall of 2004. He left his FERS and Thrift Savings Plan contributions in the system. With the CSRS time and the FERS time, he is eligible for a deferred retirement now. He will have approximately…
Q. I have read several articles discussing the rise in employee contributions into the FERS portion of our retirement. It mentions new hires and rehires with less than five years of service. Does this “five years of service” apply only to rehires hired after December 2012, or does the “five years” also apply to new hires, as well? My service computation date is July 2009, meaning that I will have less than five years of service at the end of 2012. Am I going to face this FERS increase, or does the five-year issue only apply to new hires? A.…
Q. I worked for the Postal Service for two years and eight months, and left in the early 1970s to raise my child. At that time, I withdrew my contributions. When I returned to federal service (not the post office) in 1987, I was told I was not vested in CSRS and therefore had to be enrolled in FERS. I was credited with my post office service, so my service computation date is Dec. 7, 1984, rather than February 1987, when I was hired. I would like to know if I should have been offered the opportunity to repay my withdrawn…
Q. After 38 years of contribution to my retirement fund, of $78,000, why do I have to wait for a full annuity payment? The money is there, and I need my full annuity monthly. Who can I speak to in order to get what I worked for? Also, why do I have to pay taxes on my annuity every month when I paid taxes when I was working for 38 years? I am under CSRS and my retirement date was five months ago. A. You have to wait because the Office of Personnel Management is both short-staffed and overloaded with…
Q. I worked for federal government for 20 years under CSRS, then resigned in 1997 and left my retirement contributions in CSRS, understanding that I could start to receive an annuity at age 62. Since that time, I have worked for 15 years for state government, paying into Social Security. If I were to return to federal service, into which retirement system would I be placed? What would the benefits be to returning to federal service as far as retirement benefits concerning CSRS and Social Security? A. Because you left your contributions in the retirement fund, you would be eligible…
Q. I have worked at a number of federal agencies over the past 35 years. My current leave and earnings statement only reflects my earnings and CSRS contributions at my current agency. How do I get the true total earnings I have had over my entire federal career? Is there a form or office I can contact. What is the correct procedure? I am planning to retire at the end of this calendar year. A. I checked with the Office of Personnel Management, and here is what they had to say: “First, the employee must have all of their SF-50s from…
Q. I was hired by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in 1994 and resigned in 2000 to relocate across the country. Four months later, I found a new position and have been continuously employed with the federal government since. My position in the U.S. Senate will expire at the end of the year (the senator I work for is retiring). If it takes, hypothetically, two or three months after that to find another federal position, what will that break in service do to my retirement benefits/years in service? And what about the first break in service of four months back in…
Q. I am considering retiring Dec. 31. I turned 62 on April 7, and as of Aug. 28, I will have 42 years and four months of total service. Scenario 1: What if I decide wait until Jan. 2, 2013, to retire instead? Would I get full credit for any unused annual or sick leave I would have accrued if I stayed to the new year? Scenario 2: Will the excess retirement dollars from September 2012 to Dec. 31 (date of retirement) equate to any percentage of annuity or lump-sum payment after I retire? A. You’ll have to check with…
Q. An article about a House panel approving higher pension contributions for feds said that if you do not have five years by 2013 that you would be subject to the 5.8 percent. What is the cutoff date in 2013? I started Aug. 4, 2008. A. You are the victim of a common misunderstanding. The law doesn’t apply to current employees, only to those first hired on or after Jan. 1, 2013, and any former employees that return to work for the government and have fewer than five years of creditable service.