Q. I am a FERS employee and have a serious medical condition and was considering filing for disability retirement. I have not done so because of the uncertainty surrounding whether OPM would actually grant the application and, more importantly, because I have tried to maintain my employment as long as possible. My agency is not offering early retirement. Can a person dual-file an early-out application and a disability application? If so what are the pros and cons? A. Yes, but you can apply for early retirement only if your agency has been approved to offer it and the offer applies…
Browsing: Early retirement
Q. I am a FERS employee in the process of buying back my military time — however, I am not sure if there is an advantage to it. If I buy back my military time (13 years, at a cost of $7,367.50), have a service computation date of September 1984 for federal service and am 58, what possible benefit could be gained? If an early retirement is offered, would I be eligible, and if so, would it be beneficial to accept early retirement —- or stay until I am 62 to 65? A. If you completed your deposit, you’d be…
Q. The person who processes retirements at my agency told me that I could not retire with 32 years at 51 years. I am an offset employee under CSRS. I thought the Office of Personnel Management indicated that if you retire before 55 years of age, you are penalized 1/6 (no more than 2 percent for the first year and 2 percent for every after for being under 55. So, I resigned. It’s only been a few days. The agency person said I could only retire at this age if they were offering a buyout. That seems right because I was offered…
Q. I am a Defense Department civilian employee under FERS. My date of birth is March 15, 1954. My EOD was Oct. 1, 2007, which gives me five years of service. I have accrued 111.75 hours of annual leave, 80 hours of sick leave and 8.5 credit hours as of the pay period ending Oct. 6. I do not meet eligibility requirements for an early retirement under FERS, so If I resign within the next few weeks, what is the process I need to go through, and what can I expect as far as payout? Will I lose any of…
Q. I am 53 years old with 24 years of FERS service and considering either a deferred or postponed retirement option in the next year or two. How does the newly enacted benefit for FERS employees to get service longevity credit for unused accumulated sick leave operate under the postponed or deferred retirement scenarios? I know you get 50 percent credit for longevity purposes for all unused accumulated sick leave for retirements between now and Dec. 31, 2013, and full day-for-day credit for unused accumulated sick leave for longevity credit for retirements on and after Jan. 1, 2014 in the…
Q. I am a 6c federal employee with a retirement 6c date of Sept. 28, 1996, and because of my 11 years of military service and buyback, I have a retirement service computation date of Aug. 26, 1985. I am four years away from 20 years of 6c time. However, I might have an opportunity to pursue a career in which I could make substantially more with the ability of working until age 65 if I desire. I should also point out that after my 11 years of military service, I continued with the reserves and will obtain a military…
Q. I’m a 52-year-old mail handler with 28 years of service. I still owe on my mortgage. I have enough equity to buy something smaller and pay most of it in full. Would I be eligible to retire now to take advantage of the $15,000 early-out being offered? A. Because you meet the age and service requirements for early voluntary retirement, you could do so if you were offered a Voluntary Separation Incentive Payment.
Q. I retired from the Army in 1991 with 22+ years of service as a command sergeant major. I went to work immediately as a FERS civil service employee, and nine years and nine months later, was offered an early retirement and a $25,000 one-time incentive payment because of agency drawdowns. To qualify, I would have to waive my military retirement, which I did, and that brought my total years of service to about 32 years or so. Had I known then what I know now, I would have simply completed three more months of FERS employment and taken the…
Q. I am a FERS employee with 27 years of service at 56 years old. Because my spouse is ill, I will have to retire early (sometime this year) to take care of him. Do I get penalized the 5 percent? Do I get to keep health and life insurance? And do I receive the Social Security supplement? A. Because you would be retiring under the MRA+10 provision, your annuity would be reduced by 5 percent for every year you were under age 62 and you wouldn’t be eligible for the special retirement supplement. On the other hand, you would be…
Q. I turn 50 in November. I have 25 years of service. Is there any scenario that would allow me to take an early-out? A. You don’t have the age and service needed to retire on an immediate annuity. On the other hand, you do have the age and service needed to retire if your agency was: 1) granted the authority to offer early retirement to its employees, and 2) you were occupying a position to which that authority applied. Note: If you just bailed out, you’d be eligible for a deferred annuity at age 60.