Q. I am 51 years old with 27 years of service with the Post Office. I am under FERS. Half of my 27 years have been in a part-time regular position (24 hours per week). The last three years, I have been in full-time status. I am thinking of retiring if a VERA is offered. How are creditable years accrued? Will I be eligible? Will I have added deductions? I am worried if I don’t retire when the next VERA is offered, the supplemental retirement pay will be eliminated before I reach 56 (my minimum retirement age) and I would…
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Q. When I retire from my GS position, I plan to take a part-time position at a lower pay scale. Would I start out in the Step 1 position, or would it be at a higher step? A. Because there is no requirement that you be hired above Step 1, it’s up to the agency that is hiring you to determine if there is any basis for placing you at a higher step. FYI, unless you are being hired into a position that allows you to receive both your full annuity and the full salary of your new position, your…
Q. I am a FERS employee in the Veterans Affairs Department. I have four years and nine months of service with 50 days of sick leave and 72 days of annual leave accumulated. What are the regulations regarding the use of leave to extend time of service so that I qualify for an annuity with five years in? A. Annual or sick leave cannot be used to increase your length of service. To be vested in the retirement system, you will need to be employed full time for five years, longer if you work part time.
Q. I will have 25 years of service soon but will only be 48. If the government offers early-outs, what will I be eligible for? Pension at one-quarter of my salary for the last three years? Health insurance? What if I get a part-time job? Will this affect my pension or annuity? Also, if I do an annuity on my Thrift Savings Plan, can I start that now? Will there be a penalty? Do I get this same amount for the rest of my life, or does it stop after a certain number of years? A. Reg Jones: Because you…
Q. I have been a part-time federal employee under CSRS for 32 years. How will my time in service be calculated for retirement? Is it counted year for year as a full-time employee is counted? I will be 55 in six years, and I would like to start planning now for the day I can retire. A. Your years will be counted as though you were full time, but your annuity will be prorated to account for the fact that you did not work full time. Due to a change in the law, which is to your benefit, your annuity…
Q. I’ve been in FERS for 26 years. I’m waiting for an early-out, but if that doesn’t happen I was thinking of bidding on a part-time or nontraditional job with fewer than 40 hours a week. How would this affect my retirement based on the high-3 average used to calculate annuity? My minimum retirement age is 56, so in 2014 I will have 28.7 years. Will I be penalized if I retire then? Will it be 5 percent for every year under 62? A. Your high-3 will be based on the average annual rate of basic pay during your highest…
Q. I am a former Postal Service employee (33 years of service) collecting a pension. This September, I will have my required 40 quarters for Social Security (I work part time). Will I be entitled to a Social Security benefit? If so, to what approximate amount? A. Yes. However, if you are a former CSRS employee, that benefit will be affected by the windfall elimination provision. The WEP reduces the Social Security benefit of anyone who receives an annuity from a retirement system where he didn’t pay Social Security taxes (such as CSRS) and has fewer than 30 years of…
Q. I will be 62 in September with about 36 years of federal employment under CSRS. I know that I meet the criteria for normal retirement, but I have a question on Social Security quarters. I have been working part time before and during my federal career. I have checked my required quarters and found that I have enough to receive Social Security. Do the quarters count as the number of years (30) that qualify you for Social Security? Is there any other way to count the 30 years of employment? A. To be eligible for a Social Security benefit, you…
Q. I retired from the Postal Service with 30 years of service at age 56.5. I am looking to apply to TSA as a transportation security officer but wonder if this will have any effect on my retirement being received from the Office of Personnel Management? Also, if I were to work for TSA for one, three or five years and then quit, would OPM recompute my retirement adding these years in (35 vs. 30)? I am applying for part-time work (25 hours weekly) and retired under FERS. I will have been retired for five years as of Dec. 31. A. You’ll…
Q. I work for a federal agency that has offered a VERA/VSIP. I have 31 years of civilian service under CSRS, and I’ll be 53 years old on July 12. Employees who accept the buyout offer are to be off the agency payroll by June 2012. I’ve applied for the offer, but I’ve only been enrolled in the health insurance program for 2½ years. I’ve also discovered that the estimated annuity calculated through Employee Benefits Information System is not accurate because it is based on working 40 hours a week for 31 years (I was part time for 17 years,…