Q. I am facing mandatory retirement from a covered law enforcement position after 25 years. I would like to take a noncovered position in a different job series that’s nonlaw enforcement. Can I collect my full retirement? How would my retirement be affected? A. You could either retire and begin working in another position or transfer to another position and continue working. In the first case, the salary of your new position would, in most cases, be offset by the amount of your law enforcement officer annuity. In the second, you would continue to be a salaried employee. You could…
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Q. When I retire at the end of this school year, I will have 43 years of service with the Department of Defense Education Activity and 130 days of unused sick leave. I have been informed that my sick leave can be used to add additional service time. Does that apply when I have already reached 80 percent of my salary for retirement? A. Yes. Unused sick leave isn’t subject to the 80 percent limit.
Q. I was just told by my human resources specialist that when pretax Federal Employees Health Benefits premiums reduce my taxable income, they also reduce my salary for the computation of high-3 average salary for retirement. Is this true? It doesn’t sound right to me, and I’ve never heard such a thing. A. You haven’t heard such a thing because it isn’t true. Your high-3 is based on your highest average pay rates during any three consecutive years before any deductions are taken from that pay.
Q. I was a term employee for one year and my term expired on Dec. 19. I was a GS-6 Step 7. I got an offer for a temporary position Jan. 11, but it comes with a $7,000 reduction in pay, and I was informed that it was management’s choice on whether to honor my previous salary. Can they do this? I am doing the same job that I was doing before, just for a different organization on the installation. My biggest concern is that I am disabled veteran over 30 percent, as well as on the spousal priority placement…
Q. I have just returned to federal civil service after being away for 4½ years. I have made a lump-sum deposit for those 4½ years. If I retire tomorrow, how will my high-3 salary be calculated? Would it reflect the salary tables for 2008 to 2012 — the years I was away — or would my actual salary from 2004 to 2007 be used? A. Your high-3 would be based on the average of the highest three consecutive years of basic pay you actually received, not what you would have received if you’d been at work.
Q. How many years of federal service does one have to work before retiring and receiving the exact amount of pay they are getting while working? Someone said you had to work until 35 years of service to receive your full retirement pay. A. Regardless of which retirement system you are in, it would be impossible to retire and receive an annuity that equaled what you were earning as an employee. Under FERS, even if you worked for 50 years, your annuity would only equal 55 percent of your highest three years of average salary (.011 x your high-3 x…
Q. I’m a Postal Service employee under FERS, eligible for the Voluntary Early Retirement Authority. If I take the early-out, I’ll have 26 years and nine months of service and I’ll be 55 years of age at the time of last day of service. I’ll be 56 in June. I understand that if I take the early-out, I don’t have to have 30 years of service to get a percentage of the special retirement supplement, based on 26 years of service (that would put me at about 65 percent of what I would get from Social Security at age 62,…
Q. I am a GS-14 federal retiree, having retired in October. I worked continuously (no break in service) for 34½ years. My period of employment was entirely competitive service. I was classified as exempt from the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. I am interested in knowing how I would be paid if I decided to apply as a rehired federal annuitant. Is there a table that you can point me to with a step-by-step decision tree as well as examples of how a salary would be determined? A. Nope. There aren’t any tables or decision trees. It would be up…
Q. My husband was a temporary federal employee for the Defense Department for five years. He was laid off in August. He had two years of military service, which he bought that time back, so in essence he has seven years of federal service. He is 60 years old. He put 10 percent of his salary in the Thrift Savings Plan. Should he leave that money in TSP or put it in another vehicle? Also, when he reaches retirement age (62), will he receive a pension for the seven years of federal service? He left DoD with a sick leave…
Q. I began federal employment at age 55. I hope to reach age 70 with 15 years of service. My goal is to add federal retirement with Social Security for maximum retirement. Could I potentially earn $1,666 per month, or 30 percent, with a base salary of $65,000? A. Your FERS annuity would be 15 percent of your high-3 (.01 x your highest three years of average salary x your years and full months of service). To get an estimate of your Social Security benefit, go to http://ssa.gov/planners/benefitcalculators.htm and click on Quick Calculator.