Q: I am a dual status employee in an excepted position with military affiliation with the Air National Guard as a condition of employment. If I elect to retire from my military position before the end of my enlistment and subsequently lose my civil service job, would it be considered a voluntary separation? I am eligible to retire from both and trying to determine if I am eligible to receive unemployment insurance benefits. A: Eligibility for unemployment benefits is determined by the state in which you live. You’ll need to talk with a specialist in your state unemployment office.
Browsing: CSRS
Q: I am a federal employee under CSRS. When I die, my spouse will get the full spouse survivor benefit. She is not and has not been a federal employee. Is it true that when I die most (if not all) of her Social Security benefits will go away because she receives the CSRS survivor benefit? A: Her Social Security benefit won’t be affected in any way unless she is receiving an annuity — in whole or part — from a retirement system where she didn’t pay Social Security taxes.
Q: I began working for the federal government in 1966, and in October 1972 I was no longer able to work and began receiving a CSRS disability annuity. At the time I was married, but that marriage ended in 1990. In 2000 I remarried at age 53. I never applied for Social Security disability. I worked and paid into Social Security for a few years, but because I was disabled, my earnings were extremely low. At my full retirement age of 66 my Social Security benefit would only be $257, and less than that if I applied for my benefit…
Q: My compensation date is July 29, 1968. I worked under CSR for 30 years and upon advice from our human resources department, I switched to FERS to get the matching funds and TSP tax-deferred deductions (which were not available to CSR workers at the time). At the same time I earned 40 quarters under Social Security (I worked a full-time job for 10 years at the same time as I started with the government full time). I am in good health and do not plan on retiring immediately, but I’d like to plan ahead. Additionally I became disabled in…
Q: My husband and I are planning to retire from federal service the end of this year. I have 32 years under the CSRS and my husband is retiring under CSRS-Offset with 30 years of service. I have had no health issues so we have taken out additional life insurance on me to supplement him should I predecease him. However, he has had a number of recent illnesses causing life insurance to be more costly. Therefore, he plans to elect full survivor benefit for me. Can you please explain what impact the WEP and GPO will have on me drawing…
Q: I’m 55 years old. My health required me to retire after working 24 years for the DoD at FRC-E. I worked under the CSRS due to my employer’s mistake, which was discovered on my retirement. FRC-E paid all required SSI funds to make me current as a CSRS Offset employee, and I have been approved by SSI for Medicare. I was told I would receive half of my retirement payment from DoD and the other half from SSI. I get the DoD’s portion but cannot convince SSI to pay anything. What can I do to correct this problem, or…
Q: I will be retiring soon from the civil service. I am covered under CSRS Offset due to my earlier employment as a career civilian government employee under another federal retirement system from which I have a (suspended, for now) pension. I worked part time after 2002 under a temporary, intermittent appointment between my two career federal government positions. I have almost two years of eligibility for prior service credit from those years upon a deposit to cover that period in CSRS. I understand that even though am now covered under CSRS Offset I will have to make a full…
Q: I am a postal worker under CSRS and I will be retiring on Dec. 31 with 37 years. Will my unused annual leave be taxed on my 2011 income? A: Your lump-sum payment will be taxable in the year it is received.
Q: I am a recent widow of a CSRS Offset employee. I, too, was a CSRS employee (not offset). The survivor benefit that has been calculated for me is equivalent to 28 percent of my husband’s retirement benefit when he died. This doesn’t seem accurate, although it may be. I’ve spent nearly a year with OPM and Social Security trying to identify where their numbers are coming from, with no success. Can you recommend an expert that I can contact to assist me? Nobody, not even Social Security, seems to know how the rules were applied and I am going…
Q: I am a CSRS retiree. How can I compute how much my annuity will increase once the 55 percent annuity survivor benefit is no longer valid? A: Start by computing what you annuity would have been if you hadn’t elected a survivor annuity, using the following formula: 0.015 x your high-3 on the day you retired x 5 years of service, plus 0.0175 x your high-3 x 5 years of service, plus 0.02 x your high-3 x all remaining years and full months of service. Once you have the product of that calculation, multiply it by each cost-of-living adjustment…