Q: My husband retired under the Civil Service Retirement System Offset program and had a 55 percent survivor benefit for me. I am Federal Employees Retirement System employee, and I will be retiring in three years with the maximum survivor benefit for him. Whoever dies first, will the other one receive survivor benefits and will the survivor’s other federal benefits be reduced by how much they receive from the deceased? A: There wouldn’t be any reduction. You would be able to receive both your own annuity and the survivor benefit provided by your deceased spouse.
Browsing: CSRS
Q: I am a veteran who paid into Social Security while in service for seven years; I am now retired from federal service under the Civil Service Retirement System. Will I be entitled to Social Security payments? A: You will only be entitled to a Social Security benefit if you have earned 40 credits, which takes 10 years of covered earnings. Note: If you are eventually entitled to a Social Security benefit, you will be impacted by the windfall elimination provision. The WEP reduces the Social Security benefit of anyone who is receiving an annuity from a retirement system in…
Q: My 76-year-old mother got married last year to a 76-year-old man. After they got married, they were getting about $5,000 a month from his Civil Service Retirement System annuity and about $1,500 a month from her Social Security. Sadly, he had a massive heart attack two weeks ago and passed away. They had been married 11 months. This gentleman had told my mother that he had named her as the beneficiary of his survivor annuity and that she would receive about $3,000 a month if he died first. Will my mother’s $1,500-per-month Social Security be affected by this annuity?…
Q: I voluntarily retired after 37 1/2 years with the Internal Revenue Service on Jan. 3, 2007, under the Civil Service Retirement System. From July 2007 to Dec. 6, 2009, I served as a contractor to the Health and Human Services Department. I was then hired as a full-time employee. Human resources made a mistake and did not offset my annuity until March 2010. As a result, this left me with only $38 in net pay and a debt of $15K because my salary was not offset. HHS wants me to continue to provide my services so they offered to…
Q: For my spouse to continue to be covered under the Federal Employees Health Benefits program after I retire from federal service and after my death, which type of annuity should I select? My spouse does not want to receive a survivor annuity and will consent to sign an attachment to SF 2801-2, Spouse’s Consent to Survivor Election, but he needs the FEHB coverage. A: He can’t be covered under the FEHB program unless he is receiving a survivor annuity. However, as a Civil Service Retirement System employee, with your husband’s written consent, you could elect to give him any…
Q: My husband and I are both Civil Service Retirement System Offset employees who will elect a survivor annuity. Can you explain how a CSRS Offset employee’s survivor annuity offset amount is calculated? A specific example would be helpful of how the offset amount is applied to a survivor annuity. When my husband begins getting Social Security, his annuity is estimated to be offset by about $800, mine by about $200. If I receive a survivor annuity upon his death, will my survivor annuity amount be reduced dollar for dollar by the full $800, or will my husband’s full annuity…
Q: I am a former federal employee. I joined federal service in 1981. I worked with the Immigration and Naturalization Service before transferring to the State Department in July 1982. I came in under the Civil Service Retirement System. In 1985, I was automatically transferred to the Federal Employees Retirement System without my knowledge. Some employees who were transferred to FERS received a refund for their CSRS benefits. I never received a refund, and now I am under FERS. The Employee Benefits Information System is not showing that I contributed to CSRS. Can you please let me know if I…
Q: I was a federal employee for 23 years in the legislative and judicial branch. I spent about a year and a half of that time as a congressional staffer. About two years of my time at the judiciary were part time (four days a week). I left federal service at age 43. I was under the Civil Service Retirement System and left my money in the system when I left. I could go back to work for Congress for a few years. I understand that I would have to go into the Federal Employees Retirement Service. What would be…
Q: I went to a Civil Service Retirement System seminar recently and an interesting question about retirement calculation came out during your Q-and-A: What I fail to follow was the first two options (of three) you mentioned regarding the basic life insurance choices. First, if I opted to keep my basic life insurance at its current level, would that mean that the insurance’s face value would remain the same for me as when I was employed through the rest of my retirement years? I would then assume that I will still continue to pay the same premium on basic life…
Q: I have 30 years of federal service and am under the Civil Service Retirement System. Next week, I will be 52 years old. I was thinking about retiring before age 55, and I know about the 2 percent reduction in monthly retirement benefits for every year under age 55. When I contacted the Office of Personnel Management about an early retirement, the answer was that I had to wait until age 55 to retire unless my agency offered an early out or buyout. Maybe I’m not using the correct terminology. Is there any way for me to “retire” before…