Q. I am a Postal Service employee with 27 years of service at age 53. If I take the upcoming Voluntary Early Retirement Authority, is there a penalty for early FERS retirement? Will I qualify for the Social Security special retirement supplement? I heard the supplement would not be paid upon early retirement under the VERA provision if you had not reached your minimum retirement age, and if you retired early, you would have to wait until you reached your MRA to start getting this supplement. As it relates solely to the Social Security supplement, what is the MRA to qualify for…
Browsing: special retirement supplement
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…
Q. If I retire at age 51 with 27 years as a federal law enforcement officer and the FERS special retirement supplement is reduced by 5 percent per year that I am under age 62, does that then mean the FERS SRS will increase by 5 percent each year until I reach the age of 62 when Social Security actually kicks in? A. You’ll be happy to know that there won’t be any reduction in the special retirement supplement when you retire. Nor will there be any reduction in your annuity. As a special category employee, you are exempt from…
Q. I am a service-connected disabled vet, with nine years’ service, plus 21 years’ service with USPS under FERS, applying for disability retirement at 49. Do I qualify for the special retirement supplement, and if so, when? A. No one approved for disability retirement is eligible to receive the special retirement supplement.
Q. I am a FERS employee with 27 years of civilian service and six years of military service, for which I made a deposit to get credit for retirement purposes. My MRA is 56. Am I eligible to retire on the first day of the calendar year in which I turn 56, or is it the day I turn 56? At that time, I will have 36 years of service. Will I get 36 percent of my high-3? When am I eligible to get 1.1 percent per year versus 1 percent? If I were offered a voluntary early retirement or…
Q. As indicated in your archives responses, the FERS supplemental terminates at age 62. I turned 62 in October and am still receiving my monthly FERS supplement and am not on Social Security. Can you elect to defer Social Security enrollment until a later age; e.g. 65 or 70, and still maintain the monthly FERS supplement? A. No. By law, the special retirement supplement terminates at age 62. Because OPM hasn’t stopped it, when they do, you’ll owe the government for any payments made to you after it should have ended.
Q. I am 63 years old and have FERS retirement. I would like to retire now but really need to hold out for two more years to get the maximum Social Security that I can draw. If I voluntarily retire right now at 63, am I able to draw the FERS supplement until age 65? A. No. The special retirement supplement automatically ends at age 62, when you are first eligible for a Social Security benefit.
Q. I am a FERS employee with 31 years of creditable service but will not reach my minimum retirement age (56) until May 2013. I am faced with possible termination but plan to resign. I understand that deferred retirees are not eligible for supplemental annuity, nor are they eligible to enroll in life insurance and health benefits. What if I am terminated rather than resigning? Will I be eligible for immediate annuity plus supplement and eligible to enroll in health benefits? Or I will only be eligible for deferred retirement in 2013 after reaching my MRA? A. It won’t make any difference to…
Q. I am trying to verify that if I take the Social Security supplement at age 60 with 20 years federal service, does that mean when I turn 62 and I receive the increased Social Security benefit that my pension will be reduced by the amount of the supplement. I have friends who do not work for the federal government but are insisting this is the case. A. Your friends are mistaken. The special retirement supplement approximates the amount of Social Security benefit you earned while a FERS employee. It stops at age 62, when you become eligible for a…
Q. I understand that the Office of Personnel Management will fund the SRS from when I retire (I plan to retire in 2017 with 30 years of FERS and at age 57½) until I turn 62. Several co-workers recently attended retirement classes with OPM and Social Security employees as instructors. The instructors have stated that at age 62, when the SRS ends, the employees must begin to take SS payments instead of allowing them to wait until age 66, for example. I understood that I could start receiving SS payments at an age that best met my requirements, not having them start…