Q: I work for the Federal Bureau of Prisons. In November, I will have 20 years’ service in law enforcement and will be 49 years old. If I decide to retire right there and then, do I have to wait an extra year to collect benefits? Can I retire at age 49 with 20 years of law enforcement plus 4 years of active-duty military service? A: No, you can’t retire on an immediate annuity at age 49. You’ll have to wait until age 50 to retire under the special provision for law enforcement officers. You could, of course, resign from…
Browsing: high-3
Q: I am an 1811 under FERS and have hit the pay cap when my AUO is included. I was told by somebody that when my retirement annuity is calculated, that the pay cap will not count against me, and that the high-3 salary will be calculated based on my grade/step/AUO without the pay-cap penalty. Is that true? A: Your annuity will be based on your basic pay, not what you would have received but for the pay cap. Looked at another way, only pay from which retirement contributions were taken will be used in the computation of your annuity.
Q: I would like to retire at the end of 2011. When this time arrives, my annual pay over the previous four years should be as follows: 2008, $90,000; 2009, $93,000; 2010, $80,000; 2011, $106,000. I will have had a stateside job with locality pay in all of those years except 2010, which would have been an overseas federal job without locality pay (a job in South Korea). I am concerned about the $80,000 that I’ll be earning in 2010, which is substantially less than the other years shown. Will the retirement system use the $80,000 that I will earn…
Q. I am a federal employee already on Medicare Part A. My tax preparer recently told me that persons signed up for Medicare are not eligible for flexible spending accounts which allow for the payment of health-care expenses with untaxed earnings. Is this true? I think he might have gotten mixed up with health savings accounts, which I don’t have. Also, please clarify whether the amount withheld from my paycheck (i.e. $3,000 yearly) to fund the flexible spending account is deducted from basic pay in calculating high-3 pay for a FERS annuity. How is this done? A: Under current law,…
Q: I will be eligible to retire from the government with 32 years of service in November 2013. I am considering going to a part-time schedule (32 hours per week) for family reasons beginning in September 2010. Under new guidelines for computing annuities for part-time employees, how will this affect my “high 3?” A: For high-3 purposes, your part-time service will be treated as if you had been working full-time; therefore, your annuity will still be based on your highest three consecutive years of average salary. On the other hand, your service credit for that period of part-time employment will…
Q. I understand that my stateside locality pay will not count towards my retirement calculation for time that I serve in Naples, Italy. I am about to start a 3-year tour there, and when I return to the U.S., plan to retire. How will my annuity be calculated — based on my “high-3” from my last three stateside years, or does the more current base salary in Naples have something added to it as well for annuity calculation purposes? A. Your annuity will be based on your highest three consecutive years of average base pay, regardless of when that occurs…
Q. I just attended an agency-sponsored retirement class at my office. It was told, by the private contractor, to all the firefighters and law enforcement personnel attending that overtime is calculated as part of your base pay along with locality pay when considering your high-3. Is this true? Can we include the overtime and if so can you please cite where I can find it? A. No, it isn’t true. Overtime, as such, is not considered to be a part of basic pay when calculating an employee’s high-3. However, firefighters do get credit for a certain portion of their standby…
Q. I am a retired civil service annuitant currently working as a rehired annuitant with the Homeland Security Department. I was re-employed as a rehired annuitant under the pension offset waiver, thus earning my full pension and salary. I was told when I complete my rehired annuitant employment, I can apply for a recalculation of my civil service annuity, based on a higher “highest 3 year average” I am now earning as a rehired annuitant. Please advise if this is true, and how I can apply for a recalculation of my annuity. A. As a rule, annuitants who are re-employed…
Q. I am under CSRS –- 13 years on Capitol Hill and with no break in service 33 years in the Executive Branch. When do I reach 80 percent? My high-3 is $152,000. Also, I reside in the District of Columbia; what portion of my CSRS annuity is taxable? A. I’ll give you the formulas. You can do the math. Your congressional employee service will be computed as follows: 0.25 x your-high-3 x all years of congressional service. Your remaining service will be computed this way: 0.02 x your high-3 x all non-congressional CSRS service. To determine what the federal…
Q. I will be covered by a Civil Service FERS/CSRS Component retirement & am currently considering an overseas assignment where a cost-of-living allowance (COLA)/post allowance (PA) will be paid. Since I lose my current stateside locality pay when overseas, will this COLA/PA be included in computations for my high-3 retirement calculation? A. No, it won’t be included when computing your high-3.