Q: An employee told me that if you retire (under the Civil Service Retirement System) with your full 41 years, 11 months, or more of service, and have more than one year of sick leave, you have the option to receive the cash payout for the sick leave instead of taking the extra 2 percent. Is there any truth to this rumor? A: No, there isn’t. Unlike annual leave, sick leave has no cash value. On the other hand, it can be added to actual service time after you become eligible to retire and used to increase the amount of…
Browsing: CSRS
Q. My husband is former military (active duty from 1977-1991) and is entering civil service in a GS position. Will he be under the FERS or CSRS system? The formula for calculating the buyback or credit is very different under the two. A. He will be under FERS. No one who is first hired after December 31, 1983, is covered by CSRS.
Q. I began Navy federal employment Dec. 6, 1986, just at the change from CSRS to FERS. This start date, however, is before the requirement that employees be placed in FERS, which I believe is Jan. 1, 1987. My initial appointment SF50 says I am CSRS at appointment, but I was moved at a later date into the FERS system, citing a change in retirement plan. I just noticed this when looking through my personnel records for a re-investigation of security clearance. I was never notified or gave approval to a change, except that this SF50, which came Jan. 8,…
Q. I have a question. I have 2,300 hours of sick leave. I am under CSRS. I have been having some back problems that will require extended sick leave. I am eligible to retire with 37.5 years of service. My question is this: Is it more advantageous to take a year off on sick leave or to retire and use the sick leave as an additional year of service? I know it adds 2 percent for the sick leave. A. You have a bigger problem than deciding which approach is the most advantageous to you. You aren’t the only player…
Q. I am a CSRS retiree and my wife is a FERS retiree. If we both take out a survivor annuity on our own retirements and one or the other of us passes away, can the survivor collect their own retirement and the survivor annuity from the deceased one? A. Yes
Q. I am currently a 29+ year federal employee with the Department of Transportation who worked for the Department of the Navy, Military Sealift Command in Washington, D.C., from May 1980 until November 1984. I then left the government for 14 months and returned to a different agency within the Department of the Navy in January 1986. I was under the CSRS during the 4 1/2 years I worked for Military Sealift Command. Because I had less than five years under CSRS, and had a break in service over one year, I requested and received a refund of excess CSRS…
Q. I am a FERS participant and my wife is CSRS. Are survivor benefits reduced for either participant because of their earned pension, as is done with GPO? Also, my understanding is my Social Security survivor benefits to my CSRS wife would be reduced/eliminated because of the GPO. For example, if her CSRS pension is $40,000/year, and my Social Security survivor benefit is $12,000/year, there would be no Social Security survivor benefits. A. Either of you would be entitled to an unreduced survivor annuity in addition to your own earned annuity. Because your wife is covered by CSRS, a retirement…
Q. I am under CSRS and my wife is under FERS. When I retire I will take out a survivor annuity for her. If I should die before her and she is also retired, can she collect my survivor annuity and her FERS retirement or will she be penalized on her Social Security. A. She would be able to receive your survivor annuity, whether or not she was retired. If she was retired, she would also receive her own annuity and, when she was eligible, a penalty-free Social Security benefit.
Q. I worked for the Social Security Administration for 28 1/2 years under CSRS and took early retirement at age 50 (three months shy of my 51st birthday) on Aug. 31, 2007. Recently, a position opened up. The job was classified as a temporary position Oct. 25, to Dec. 5 as a GS-4 employee (three paychecks). The position was opened since the current employee was going on leave. I was asked to apply since I had the background working in this area. However, how does this affect my CSRS pension if I were to be rehired three years after retiring…
Q. I retired under CSRS at age 62. I do not qualify for Social Security benefits. My spouse retired at age 62 and collects Social Security. She never worked for the government and collects no other pension. When I die, and she starts collecting a CSRS survivor annuity, will she be affected by WEP? A. No.