Q. I am a 43-year-old attorney considering leaving federal service for the private sector. I have 9½ years of service, have been enrolled in FEHB for that entire time and am deciding whether any benefit would vest or accrue to me if I stay 10 full years rather than leaving a few months short of that. My human resources specialist says that if I have 10 years of service when I resign, then I would be eligible to apply for an early retirement annuity at age 57 (MRA+10, I think) and re-enroll in FEHB at that age. Is he correct?…
Browsing: Deferred annuity
Q. I am a Postal Service employee under FERS, I am over 55 years old and have about 26½ years of service. If I left USPS to work somewhere else in the private sector, would I be able to collect my annuity payments from USPS every month, or would I have to wait until I retire completely to start collecting?
Q. I am 50 years old and have over 30 years of service (bought back my military academy and military time) and am in FERS. My minimum retirement age is 56. Is there a penalty for retiring now (or, more specifically, in November, when I turn 51) in that I will not have reached my MRA?
Q. I was an air traffic controller. My Federal Aviation Administration hire date was Sept. 30, 1990. I was terminated March 8 — 261 days from being eligible for retirement because I lost my medical. My 50th birthday is Nov. 24. I have over 22 years of “good time” and five years of military time, which I bought back, for a total of 27 years of government service. The FAA says I can file for a disability retirement, but otherwise I am entitled to nothing. Can this be right? Even if I get the disability retirement, it will be less…
Q. I was federally employed as a Border Patrol agent in November 1988, then joined the FBI in June 1991 and was fired May 2011 (no break in service since November ’88). I was 48. I can find no answers regarding retirement benefits. I was told I forfeited everything, but I could find nothing in writing. What are my options?
Q. My husband resigned from a Defense Department agency (non-civil service) after 29 years to work in the private sector. He was under CSRS, never converting to FERS. Before his resignation 10 years ago, he spoke to the agency’s personnel retirement representatives and was told he would still be able to collect retirement but only after he reached the age of 62. They told him that he should start the retirement paperwork six months from his 62nd birthday. Is this information correct? Does he lose the 2 percent for each year under the age of 62 he was when he…
Q. My husband worked for a Veterans Affairs medical center for seven years, then left federal employment for eight years. He is 63 and receiving a deferred annuity. He may be returning to federal employment. When he returns, is there a certain amount of time he must be re-employed to be able to retire and carry his health benefits into retirement? A. If your husband was re-employed, he’d be able to enroll in the FEHB program during the next open season. He would then have to be enrolled for five years to continue that coverage when he once again retired.
Q. I am a retired military officer with no buyback time. I have six years of federal service and am 58. If I understand the deferred retirement eligibility, I could resign from federal service at this juncture and apply for some level of deferred annuity at age 62, correct? A. Because you have at least five years of civilian service under FERS, you could resign and apply for deferred annuity at age 62.
Q. I have a little over 13 years of FERS service. I am 51 years old. I originally planned on retiring at 56 (MRA+10) but I have recently been contemplating retiring now under a deferred retirement. 1. If I retire now (deferred), will I be able to draw the retirement at 56, or will I have to wait until age 62? 2. If I choose to withdraw my retirement versus defer it, is there a calculator somewhere that can give me a general idea of how much I would get? A. You can’t retire. What you can do is resign…
Q. I was a federal employee for 26 years and, from 1987 onward, was under FERS. I left my last federal job in June 2009 at age 58, after having passed the minimum retirement age and having been enrolled in the Federal Employees Health Benefits plan over the entire 26 years of my federal employment. In June 2009, I said that I intended to take a postponed retirement, some time after I reached age 60. It is my understanding that my enrollment in FEHBP was suspended at the time I left my last federal employment, in June 2009. I had…