Q. I plan to take a postponed annuity in 2013 at age 60, under the FERS MRA+10 provision. I assume I need to specify the start date of my annuity when I apply for retirement with my agency human resources office this year. Can I later move up my annuity date? If Congress proposes to take away some of our FERS retirement benefits such as the special retirement supplement, I would like the option to start my annuity sooner even if it means my annuity may be slightly penalized? A. Yes, you can specify when you want to receive your…
Browsing: MRA+10
Q. I am a Navy civilian Defense Department employee in my mid-50s. I have been in my current position since August 2001. I also have six years active Army (two separate hitches — a two-year and a four-year) as an enlisted man. I haven’t repaid that time. I don’t know whether I should pay that back or not. That gives me over 10 or over 15 years depending on how it is viewed. I have considered leaving this position for a nongovernment job. What would my retirement options be in my current situation? What options are open to me given…
Q. I am a FERS letter carrier. My MRA is 56, and my retirement date is April 2016. I will have 30 years by then. I would like to leave two or three years earlier. Is this possible without an early out or voluntary early retirement agreement? Is it possible to do this under deferred retirement? If it is, what health benefits and annuity would I stand to lose? I have enough money saved to where I could wait two or three years before receiving benefits. Is there any other way of leaving before my full retirement age? Even an extended…
Q. I have two years of FERS employment and have two more years on a term employment. I am retired military. I am a service academy graduate and bought back those four years. My understanding is that I must have at least five years of actual FERS employment to retire. Must I have at least three more years of FERS employment (for a total of five) to get a FERS retirement? If I had five years’ FERS plus the four years I bought back, could I apply for retirement at age 62 with nine years of service? Alternately, could I…
Q. I’m 59½, with 26 years of service as a carrier in USPS. If I retire now, how much will my annuity be reduced by, and will I be eligible for the supplemental income under the FERS benefit? A. Because you’d be retiring under the MRA+10 provision, your annuity would be reduced by 5 percent for every year (5/12 percent per month) that you are younger than 62. Further, you wouldn’t be entitled to the special retirement supplement.
Q. I am 57, with 10 years of service under FERS. If I am offered and accept a buyout, could I get my full annuity without reduction of 5 percent for every year I am younger than 62 and continue my FEHB family plan? Suppose I take my annuity immediately after this MRA+10 and buyout. A. No, you couldn’t get your full annuity without reduction because you’d be retiring under the MRA+10 provision. Therefore, your annuity would be reduced by 5 percent for every year you were younger than 62. You could reduce or eliminate that penalty by postponing the…
Q. I am 63 and a FERS employee, and I plan to retire this summer, but I want to reach 20 years of service to get 22 percent of my high-3 salary for my pension. I have 19 years and eight months of service and 1,600 hours of sick leave. My calculations indicate my sick leave will add four months to my service, so that I would have 20 years of service and could receive the higher multiplier (1.1 percent versus 1 percent). I have found regulations that indicate you cannot use sick leave for retirement eligibility, but I cannot find anything that…
Q. Suppose a person does 23 years of active duty (enlisted) regular Army service and then gets a federal job under FERS. If he retires after 10 years, can he still receive his military retirement pay, military disability check, Social Security and federal retirement checks? A. Yes. However, because he’d be retiring under the MRA+10 provision (minimum retirement age with at least 10 and no more that 29 years of service), his FERS annuity would be reduced by 5 percent for every year he is younger than 62. He could, of course, retire and postpone the receipt of his annuity until…
Q. My month of birth is June 1963. I will have 12 years of federal service at age 56. What is my MRA? Is it 56 with a penalty and age 62 with 18 years of service no penalty? A. Your minimum retirement age is 56. Since you are only 49, you’d have to wait until you reached your MRA to retire under the MRA+10 provision. Then your annuity would be reduced by 5 percent for every year you were younger than 62. You could, of course stick around until you had 20 years of service. By then you’d be at least 60 and…
Q. I am a full-time FERS employee born in 1959 with a minimum retirement age of 56 but with 21 years with the Department of Transportation, two years in the Defense Department and six years in the military. What is the earliest age I would be able to retire given years of service? What would be the effects (reduction in benefits) of retiring at that minimum age? What is the minimum age I could retire without a reduction in benefits? A. The earliest age at which you could retire is when you reach your minimum retirement age — 56 — which…