Q. I am a FERS employee with 31 years of creditable service but will not reach my minimum retirement age (56) until May 2013. I am faced with possible termination but plan to resign. I understand that deferred retirees are not eligible for supplemental annuity, nor are they eligible to enroll in life insurance and health benefits. What if I am terminated rather than resigning? Will I be eligible for immediate annuity plus supplement and eligible to enroll in health benefits? Or I will only be eligible for deferred retirement in 2013 after reaching my MRA? A. It won’t make any difference to…
Browsing: creditable service
Q. I am a Postal Service employee with 27 years actual service. I also bought back four years of military service (actually three years, 11 months and 28 days). Will I get credit for four full years or three years and 11 months under FERS retirement? A. While you will get credit for that service in determining your eligibility to retire and in the computation of your annuity, it won’t be included when computing the special retirement supplement. Only actual FERS service will be counted in that.
Q. I am currently a federal employee and my career is as follows: I joined the military reserves at 17 and was activated for the Gulf War, received two years of credible service. I began my civilian career at age 23 as a customs inspector (non-6 (c) coverage) and was there for three years. At age 26, I became an 1811 with the INS for two years. At age 29, I joined ATF as an 1811. Now I am 39. If I buy back my military time now, would that allow me to retire at age 46 with 20 years…
Q. I’ve been getting mixed messages about whether service at the armed forces military academies is creditable for annual leave accrual purposes. I’ve read Q&As on your site that say it is, but my human resources people say that it isn’t. Who’s right? A. According to the Office of Personnel Management: “Section 1115 of the NDAA for FY 2008 is the applicable provision of law that explicitly makes academy service time creditable for retirement — and therefore for annual leave accrual purposes. “Section 1115 of the NDAA amended title 5 United States Code so that it explicitly made academy service time creditable toward retirement…
Q. I was looking at what states are best for retiring when it comes to tax rates. I’ve read that North Carolina doesn’t tax annuities. That’s great for my TSP annuity, but is my Postal Service retirement considered an annuity? A. Civil service annuities in North Carolina aren’t taxed if you had five years of creditable government service as of Aug. 12, 1989. If you didn’t, they’re taxable.
Q. Am I correct that you can “add” accrued annual leave in the calculation of CSRS retirement percentages, even if the accrued and unused leave at retirement would increase your retirement percentage more than 80 percent? A. Yes. The 80 percent limit applies only to the earned annuity benefit, the one based on your years and full months of creditable service.
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 was put under FERS when I joined the federal government as a civilian employee in 1994. At the time, it appeared to make sense given that FERS was created in 1987 and all new federal employees were put into FERS. However, it looks like it is possible that I was eligible for CSRS when I was first hired. I was in the military from 1981 to 1990, which included more than five years of service when FERS was created in 1987. My federal employer probably decided that since this was military service, not civilian service, I was not…
Q. I retired from active duty in 2005. I made a service deposit to buy my academy time. When I reach minimum retirement age+10 next month, I will have 10 years and five months of creditable service (six years and six months since hired, plus three years and 11 months purchased service), more than 240 hours of annual leave and more than 600 hours of sick leave. I’ve gotten a formal Office of Personnel Management retirement estimate to verify my understanding that I can do a MRA+10 retirement this year. I initially used Tricare for my health insurance, however, to…
Q. I was affected by base realignment and closure in 1995. My agency moved from Kettering, Ohio, to Columbus, more than 90 miles each way. Married with a child in school, I was not able to relocate. Incidentally, I was also on workers’ compensation at the time. I resigned due to work offered outside my commuting area but received workers’ comp for the next 13 years. In March 2009, I gained employment at another government agency (we moved to another state). The new agency doesn’t want to give me my full tenure toward retirement. It was always my belief that…