Q. Can a FERS employee with active-duty time, then Army Reserve time, then sanctioned as a USAR to retire and receive a retirement check, immediately buy back his active-duty time to count toward his civilian time? A. An employee can always make a deposit to get credit for any periods of active-duty service. If that employee receives reserve retired pay, he can receive that and his civilian retired pay without a reduction in either. If he receives military retired pay, in most cases he’ll have to waive that pay to get civilian credit for his active duty service.
Browsing: military buyback
Q. What are the guidelines for buying back contractor time (four years) when I get a federal job? I have three years’ military service. A. You cannot make a deposit to get credit for your time as a contractor. You can make a deposit to get credit for any active-duty military time.
Q. My wife is a CSRS Postal Service employee with four years of military time and will retire in February with 36 years total. She did not pay back her military time. She was told by the post office that Social Security would deduct the money from her check when she reaches 62. 1. My wife does not plan on trying to collect Social Security at age 62, so will they still lower her retirement check? 2. I was told during a civil service retirement seminar that if she waited until age 68, she could go back to work and…
Q. If I change my health insurance to self-only (due to my wife having insurance through her company) and I retire next year, can I add her back to mine if she loses or changes jobs. I ask because it’s open season and I plan on retiring the end of May from the Postal Service. I have my minimum retirement age and 31 years, three of which are my military buyback. A. As a retiree, you could change from self-only to self and family under Qualifying Life Event 2G. And you could do that from 31 days before through 60…
Q. Can I buy back my reserve schooling and my summer camps that are active duty on my chronicle statement? On SF 50 block 31, if I buy back three years of my active duty from my reserves and I started in 2005 for the civilian federal government, is it supposed to be counted from 2002? It’s now 2012. Does it mean I have 10 years of federal time? I retired out of the Army Reserve with 20 years. Out of those 20 years, I have two DD-214s — one for basic and Advanced Individual Training and one for Afghanistan…
Q. I have 33 years in and am under CSRS. I will be 60 years old in May. I served less than two years in the Army in my 20s. I am a WG-8 making almost $25 an hour. I receive correspondence statements from Social Security that if I retire at age 62, I would be eligible for approximately $300 based on a second job 12 years ago and jobs before joining the government in the 1980s. 1. Should I buy back the time I have in the Army? 2. Will the buyback help increase my Social Security? Or will…
Q. I served in the Marine Corps active duty from 1975-1987, then in December 1987 became a civil servant under FERS as a special agent (1811) until I retired in 2009 with 21 years of civil service. I bought back my 12½ years of active-duty military time, giving me 33½ years of federal service at age 51 (I was 17 when I joined the Marines). I stayed in the Marine Corps Reserves with 20 good years and will start to draw my military retirement annuity at age 60. I am 55. What is my MRA? I receive the special retirement…
Q. I plan to retire at 32 years of federal service under CSRS. I have six months of military service that have not been paid off. Is that going to affect my 40 quarters of Social Security? A. If you don’t make a deposit for those six months of active-duty service, your CSRS annuity will be actuarially reduced by 10 percent of the amount you owe, plus accrued interest. Because you will be receiving an annuity from a retirement system where you didn’t pay Social Security taxes, you’ll be subject to the windfall elimination provision. The WEP will reduce your…
Q. I am a 43-year-old federal employee, and I had seven years of military time and so far 15 years of service under FERS. I have made a deposit for my military time, so I am at 23 years. I just made GS-11. What is the option for retiring at the end of that three-year period as a GS-11 for my high-three? A. There is no option because you won’t meet the age and service requirements to retire on an immediate annuity: age 62 with five years of service, 60 with 20, at your minimum retirement age with 30 or…
Q. In 2002, I became a FERS employee and bought back almost 13 years of AFS. Since 9/11, I have been mobilized on active-duty orders that pushed me over the 20-year AFS mark, and I have been drawing an active-duty pension since June 1. I have gotten different answers to my question: Do I still have 20 years of federal employee time such that I could retire next year at the MRA of 56, or do I revert to only about five years of creditable federal service as a government employee? Also, if I must revert back to only five…