Browsing: high-3

Q. Once I get vested after five years of being in the federal system, and perhaps I leave the job a month later. Where can I find, or how can I calculate, how much I’ll get when I retire? A. If you leave you contributions in the retirement system, you’d be entitled to a deferred annuity at age 62. That annuity would be computed using this formula: .01 x your high-3 x your years and full months of service.

Q. I have been a federal employee for Homeland Security for 6-1/2 years. I have been medically disqualified from my job. I am going to try to get disability. I have worked full time for the first 4-1/2 years, and went part-time down to 25 to 30 hours a week. Will they use the highest three salaries, even if when discharged I was working part-time for the agency? How does the calculation work for this situation? A. An employee’s full-time salaries are used in determining his high-3, even if he is in a part-time position.

Q. I am a Defense Department employee in Washington D.C. If I change my locality three months before I retire Jan. 1, when I retire would the lesser locality pay kick into my base and be used as the high-3? A. How may times do I have to say this? Your high-3 is your highest three consecutive years (78 pay periods) of average basic pay, regardless of when they occur in your career.

Q. Is night differential (shift work) added to my high-3 when calculating my retirement annuity? A. No, it isn’t, unless you are a wage system employee. Then it is.

Q. Between 2009 and 2012, I served two deployments in Afghanistan as a GS employee (CSRS). Can my salary during those deployments be used in the computation of my high-3? A. No. Only actual basic pay earned while a federal civilian employee can be used in that computation.

Q. In 2011, I left my civil service job for 175 days to deploy to Afghanistan as an active-duty officer. While deployed, I used a day or two of annual or military leave every pay period to pay for my health care benefits. FERS payments also were made on the days I was on paid leave. When I got back from my deployment, I was told I had to buy back the time, and I put in paperwork with DFAS to do so. However, I just read in my agency’s furlough FAQ that: The amount of a CSRS or FERS…

Q. I’m a FERS employee thinking of retiring at the end of 2014. I’ll be 65, and with time served, military and sick leave (barring any lengthy illness between now and then), I’ll have 29 years, plus a couple of months. I know I’ll be losing some benefits from Social Security, leaving a year early, but what would the loss be from leaving before the 30-year mark?

Q. I have been a federal employee with the Department of Veterans Affairs covered by CSRS since October 1977 and have four years of military service (I paid the military deposit in full). I am 75 and have started receiving Social Security. I will be retiring in about one year and eight months, having reached 41 years and 10 months years of service, including military service, hoping to have earned or reached the 80 percent retirement annuity. I am at the top level of my GS-12 grade step 10. What will my civil service and Social Security benefits be? Or,…

Q. I am a retired soldier with 21 years of service being paid my retirement. I am also a GS FERS employee with 13 years of service. I am 56 and would like to retire in about two years. I have asked for my calculation to see if I should buy back my service time. I assume that if I buy back my time, my military retirement stops immediately. I used your calculator to check my FERS retirement and believe I got the right number for just the 13 years. If I retire under the MRA+10 provision, will I basically…

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