Q. Under FERS (USPS), I plan to retire at 63, when my wife will be 55. I will opt for the 100 percent survivor annuity. Will my full annuity be decreased 10 percent, or will it be higher because of the age difference? A. The percentage reduction in your annuity to provide a survivor annuity for your wife would be the same, regardless of the difference in your ages.
Browsing: Survivor benefits
Q. I am a retired federal worker who worked from 1972 to 1987 under CSRS then transferred to FERS in 1987. I left the federal government in 1995 with enough quarters to qualify for Social Security but with much less than 30 years of substantial earnings. In 2010, at age 60, I began getting my government annuity, part based on CSRS and part on FERS. This year at age 62, I am eligible to receive Social Security benefits. As I understand it, FERS transfers are not affected by the offset program but are affected by the windfall elimination provision. How…
Q. I retired from active duty in 2005. I made a service deposit to buy my academy time. When I reach minimum retirement age+10 next month, I will have 10 years and five months of creditable service (six years and six months since hired, plus three years and 11 months purchased service), more than 240 hours of annual leave and more than 600 hours of sick leave. I’ve gotten a formal Office of Personnel Management retirement estimate to verify my understanding that I can do a MRA+10 retirement this year. I initially used Tricare for my health insurance, however, to…
Q. If my spouse and I both agree to terminate our full survivor election, can we do this or does it only end when one of us dies? A. Once a survivor annuity is elected, it can’t be revoked. However, if the spouse for whom it was elected dies first, the retiree’s annuity will be prospectively restored to the amount it would have been had he not elected a survivor annuity.
Q. I have 32 years of CSRS service as a civilian and am in a same-sex marriage. Can I sign up during my retirement processing for survivor benefits? A. No, you can’t, because the law governing survivor benefits hasn’t changed. However, you could elect an insurable interest annuity if you are in good health when you retire, as demonstrated by a current medical exam, and you can show that the person you are naming would benefit financially by your continuing to be alive. To pay for the benefit, your annuity would be reduced by a percentage that depends on the…
Q. I’m retiring from the Postal Service soon and have come to the stumbling block of getting the survivor benefit plan or forgoing it for a form of life insurance (whole or permanent). I’m a CSRS 56-year-old male with a 44-year-old wife who works as a teacher. I have been under her medical plan, not the Federal Employees Health Benefits plan, for the past five years. SBP would cost me $271 a month. Taking a 30-year term life policy would mean I’d better die within that time or I screwed my wife out of what I consider her entitlement to my retirement.…
Q. What are the advantages and disadvantages to having a full spouse survivor benefit versus a partial survivor benefit? When selecting a full or partial spouse survivor benefit upon CSRS retirement, how does that affect our Blue Cross/Blue Shield health coverage in retirement? Do we pay more out-of-pocket health care costs when selecting a partial spouse survivor benefit versus a full benefit? A. A full survivor benefit, which you are required to provide by law unless your spouse agrees to a lesser amount or none at all, will provide him or her with an annuity that is 55 percent of…
Q. I am curious to know if I qualify for Social Security benefits as my late husband paid greatly into them. I am a FERS employee, age 52, with 29 years of service and am considering taking the early-out expected to be offered soon at our company. If I were to assume one of the terms of this early retirement/buyout is a bridge, would it be somewhat more possible to retire given that I would be entitled to survivor benefits? A. You would first be eligible for a Social Security survivor benefit at age 60. However, it would only be…
Q. My husband, age 84, has been retired from NASA since 1988. He is in a nursing home. He receives a retirement pension from CSRS. If he passes away before I do, what will be my benefits? I believe he had to decide the percentage way back in the 1950s or ’60s. A. When your husband retired, he would have had to elect a full survivor annuity for you unless you agreed in writing to a lesser amount. If he did elect the full amount, you would receive 55 percent of his original, unreduced annuity increased by any cost-of-living adjustments made…
Q. My husband (a retired CSRS employee) currently receives a federal annuity. He also receives a small Social Security monthly payment. I also receive a Social Security monthly payment. If he passes away, I’ve been told that I either have to take his survivor CSRS benefit or my Social Security payment but not both. Is that true? A. No, it isn’t true. Whoever told you that was dead wrong. You would receive both benefits with no reduction in either.