Q: I receive a FERS annuity, military retirement and in four months will be eligible to receive Social Security at age 62. Will my Social Security be reduced due to the windfall elimination provision? A: No, the windfall elimination provision only applies to retirees who are receiving an annuity from a retirement system where they didn’t pay Social Security taxes, such as CSRS. Neither the military retirement system nor the FERS system fit that definition.
Browsing: CSRS
Q: I have several questions, but before I ask them let me provide some background. I am about to take a position as a new hire as a GS13 in September. I am 54 and plan to work until I am 62 or older. I have 16.8 years of military service which begun in May 1980. I took early retirement in January 1997 and draw military retired pay. I am a 90 percent disabled veteran and I receive VA disability compensation as result of what the VA considers a service-connected disability incurred in combat with an enemy of the U.S.…
Q: I will retire at the end of this year with 33 years’ service in the Civil Service Retirement System. I will be 58 years old. I have 10 quarters of Social Security credits I earned before working for the federal government. Under a new law effective Jan. 1, 2010, federal employees can be re-employed after retirement on a part-time basis without the earnings affecting their retirement annuity. Am I assuming correctly that the part-time earnings I receive count toward Social Security? Is there an effect on the windfall elimination provision? A: You would be covered by Social Security during…
Q: If an widow is receiving survivor benefits through the Civil Service Retirement System and she remarries, do her benefits stop? A: Yes, if she remarries before age 55. However, if that marriage ends in annulment or divorce, the survivor annuity can be reinstated.
Q: My husband recently turned 62 and applied for Social Security benefits. He is a previous Civil Service Retirement System employee, so we know that his Social Security benefit will be reduced. The problem is that he was previously married and must pay his ex-spouse a large portion of his CSRS retirement. Yet when his retirement income from CSRS was taken into account in order to offset his benefits, the Social Security Administration used his gross benefit amount and did not subtract the annuity for his former spouse. This reduced his benefits by a large portion. Why is it that…
Q: My spouse is a civil service employee and is planning to retire within the next eight months. He is 64 years old and will be 65 in March. He could have retired at age 55 but did not because of personal reasons. His health is beginning to fail him now, and he cannot continue to work in his current capacity. He worked more than 10 years at other companies before joining the civil service. He can receive full retirement benefits from the Civil Service Retirement System, but he is also eligible for a very small Social Security check, they…
Q: My husband is retiring with 40 years in the Civil Service Retirement System. We chose a survivor annuity. At age 62, I am eligible for a reduced Social Security benefit on my own earnings. If he dies, is my CSRS survivor annuity affected by my Social Security benefit, or vice versa? A: As long as you aren’t receiving an earned annuity from a retirement system where you didn’t pay Social Security taxes, neither your CSRS survivor annuity nor your earned Social Security benefit will be affected.
Q: If offered an early out by an agency, which presumably would allow for the special supplement to apply (the Office of Personnel Management website only says you “may” be entitled to), how is that computed? From what I read on the OPM website, the base amount figured on a 40 year pay into Social Security divided into the number of years of Federal Employees Retirement System service (in my case 24/40). Does the base figure assume I paid into Social Security up through 62 years of age (even though I haven’t); or the figure what I actually have paid…
Q. 1) Suppose one retires under the Civil Service Retirement System on Sunday, Oct. 31. I like to ask whether that is an especially poor date because I heard: a) in computing the high-3, only 30 days are used and thus Day 31 is not used; b) if one retires any other day except for the 31st, an extra day is added in computing high-3; c) two days of annuity is lost since salaries are not paid/prorated on weekends while annuity is paid/prorated. Yet, Human Resources said that the above is untrue because by some complicated formula, Day 31 is considered…
Q: I retired four years ago as a state university extension service employee in the Civil Service Retirement System retirement as well as state retirement. My health benefits were and continue to be through the state retirement system. I now have an opportunity to work part-time for another Agriculture Department agency. If I become a part-time employee of that agency, will it affect my CSRS benefit? A: As a rule, the salary of your new position would be reduced by the amount of your annuity. You’ll need to check with the new agency to see if there would be an…