Q: I will be covered by the Civil Service Retirement System. I have been offered a position for which locality pay is in effect. Will this locality pay be incorporated in my annuity? A: Locality pay is considered to be a part of basic pay and will be used in the calculation of your annuity.
Browsing: CSRS
Q. I will be fully eligible to retire in 2012. I am under CSRS. I also receive Social Security notices about how much SSN I will receive at Social Security age. Will I be able to receive both? A. You will receive your full CSRS annuity. However, the amount of Social Security benefit you’ll get will be affected by the windfall elimination provision of law. The WEP reduces the Social Security benefit of anyone who receives an annuity from a retirement system where he or she didn’t pay Social Security taxes, such as CSRS, and has fewer than 30 years…
Q. Thank you for the informative article on “Making Sense of 2 Types of Annuities.” I am a CSRS employee planning to retire in 2011 (at 57/32+). Our Self & Family FEHBP is and has been under my name since 1980 with out-of-pocket medical bills reimbursed via our FSA. My wife, born in 1956, is a FERS employee planning to retire in 2014 (at 58/10) under the MRA+10 provision. We wish to continue to utilize our FSA when I retire by moving our Self & Family FEHBP coverage under my wife’s name until she retires. But as I understand from…
Q. I am a CSRS employee who will have 40 years of government service in mid-April 2010 at age 63. When would it be in my best interest to retire to obtain the 80 percent annuity? Whatever that date may be, would I then be entitled to the next full cost-of-living increase? A. To receive an annuity worth 80 percent of your high-3, you’d need to have 41 years an 11 months of creditable service and owe no deposits or redeposits to the retirement fund. If you worked longer than that, any retirement contributions you made to the retirement fund…
Q. What office does a Senior Executive Service employee apply to for retirement and where is the pay office located for SES personnel? Is it a different office than a regular CSRS employee who deals with the Office of Personnel Management? A. Senior Executive Service employees are no different from other employees when it comes to retirement. They fill out the same paperwork and submit it to their servicing personnel office. Once retired, their annuity, like that of other employees, is paid out of the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund, which is maintained by the Department of the Treasury…
Q. I am eligible for retirement under CSRS with over 30 years of employment with the USGS. One intriguing retirement option was the proposal that was floated last year regarding a transition into retirement by working part time. I understand this proposal has been recently finalized; however, my main concern is how this legislation affects retirement benefits at the “high 3” level. A. There hasn’t been any change in law regarding a transition into retirement by working part time. However, there has been a change to the way that the annuities of part-time CSRS employees are calculated, which will produce…
Q. I am retired under a combination of CSRS (14 years) and FERS (12 years). My CSRS annuity is $3,000 a month and my Social Security is $600 a month. If my spouse dies, can I get any part of his $1,600 monthly Social Security? A. If you are a federal retiree who elected to switch from the Civil Service Retirement System to the Federal Employees’ Retirement System (FERS) on or before June 30, 1988 or you if you switched after that date, including during the open season from July 1, 1998, through December 31, 1998, the fact that you had at least…
Q. I retired from the U.S Forest Service on 7/03/05 at age 52 under CSRS Firefighter retirement. I retired out of a secondary firefighter position that I went into from a primary firefighter position with no break in service. If I am rehired by the U.S Forest Service now, after 4.5 years retired, into a secondary firefighter position, will I still have to take mandatory retirement at age 57 or will the break in service mean that no firefighter retirement will be in effect for any “supplemental” or separate annuity I may acquire? Basically, in this scenario, can I work…
Q. I retired on June 30, 1999 at age 47 on disability under the CSRS offset. I had exactly 21 years of service at the time of retirement. I show the disability amount as wages on my tax return. At what point can I start showing this income as a pension rather than wages? A. This is a tax matter and falls outside my area of knowledge. You’ll have to check with the IRS. To get a head start, download a copy of IRS Publication 721, Tax Guide to U.S. Civil Service Benefits, available at www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p721.pdf.
Q. I am a FERS employee and I plan to retire in the near future. As I have a CSRS component, I will be impacted by the Windfall Elimination Provision when I begin to draw Social Security. As my spouse is also a FERS employee, it is possible that my spouse benefit for Social Security may exceed my own benefits. I will turn 62 eight years before my spouse. And we both plan to draw Social Security when we each turn 62, respectively. I understand that I will not be eligible for a spouse Social Security benefit until my wife…