Q. If you retire on disability under the Federal Employees Retirement System, do you continue to get 40 percent of your high three after age 62, or is it recalculated and then you get your regular FERS? I have conflicting information. A. FERS disability annuities are recalculated and converted to regular annuities. Civil Service Retirement System annuities, which are calculated using the standard CSRS formula, aren’t. The 40 percent figure is the minimum amount that a CSRS disability retiree would receive.
Browsing: high-3
Q. I am a 61-year-old CSRS employee. I have 41 years and five months of federal service. If I decide to retire on Dec. 31, I will have 1,200 hours or more of unused sick leave. My high 3 is $104, 992. Will I meet the 80 percent limit? Also what is the most or least I can give for spousal annuity? A. You are referring to the limit that says when you retire, your earned annuity — excluding any unused sick leave — can’t exceed 80 percent of your high-3. To reach the 80 percent limit, you’d have to…
Q. I have been reading a great deal about how federal employees benefits and retirements will probably change through legislation to cut spending. Such changes may include changes to COLA calculations, averaging the high-5 and not the high-3, etc. Since the Postal Service is paid for through postal products, not tax dollars, will it be affected differently than the rest of the government? A. Only time and future legislation will give us an answer to that question. However, you need to remember that no matter where your funding comes from, most of your benefits are the ones found in Title…
Q. I plan on retiring in January 2012. If the proposal passes to make a five-year average to create my monthly retirement funds, what date would I have to retire to keep the three-year average? Sept. 30, 2011? Dec. 31, 2011? A. You are asking for a prediction, which, the way things stand, would be no better than guess work. You’ll just have to hang on until the legislative picture becomes clearer.
Q. My husband and I are currently in Federal Employees Retirement System interim disability status as our claims have not been finalized. Social Security has denied us both. We do not understand what happens when our claim is finalized. Do we both only get 40 percent of our high-3, even though we will not have Social Security to supplement our income? I have 23 years at a high-3 of $78,000 and my husband has 14 years at a $55,000 high-3. Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated. A. Because you weren’t approved for Social Security disability benefits, for…
Q. I served in the civil service from January 1977 to September 1997 (20½ years, plus seven months unused sick leave). I was in the CSRS and left my money in the CSRS when I resigned from federal service. I was earning about $81,000 as a GS14-09 (with the DC locality adjustment) when I resigned in ’97 and, by my calculations, I am entitled to receive a pension of about 38 percent of that, or roughly $28,000, when I turn 62 in three years. I also have paid into Social Security every quarter since fall 1997 and am entitled to…
Q. If Congress changes the CSRS retirement calculation from High 3 to High 5 and it is signed by the president and it becomes effective Oct. 1, then what would be the optimum CSRS retirement date for those eligible to retire under High 3? A. An “if” questions like yours would require that I accept an unfounded assumption and then guess what a law that flowed from it would set as an effective date and how and when it would affect current employees. Ask me again if a bill is actually introduced. Even then, my answer will be based solely on what that bill…
Q: I have eight years of work under FERS and will be 62 in a few years. I have left the civil service and understand that age 62 is the minimum age I can receive a deferred annuity. Is there any increase in the annuity if I wait a year or more after age 62 before filing? A: No. Your annuity will be based on your high-3 and years and full months of service on the day you left government.
Q: I receive retention pay of 10 percent of my base salary. I have run across articles that indicate that retention pay can be used to calculate the high-3. Is that true? A: As a rule, recruiting and relocation bonuses and retention allowances are not considered part of the basic pay of an employee for any purpose, including calculation of retirement annuity. Since a high-3 is based solely on basic pay, the amount from which retirement deductions are taken, you can get a pretty good idea about how your pay is being treated by looking at your latest pay slip.…
Q: I had two temporary promotions, 120 days each with pay, during the past three years. Would these be factored into my high-3 calculation? A: Yes.