Q: I’m under the Federal Employees Retirement System and plan to retire at minimum retirement age (56) with less than 30 years of service. Is the 5 percent per year penalty based on each year short of 30 years, or is it based on each year short of age 62? I’ve seen it explained both ways. Also, is the actual penalty based on fractions (months) or whole years? A: If you retire under the MRA+10 provision (minimum retirement age with at least 10 years of service), your annuity will be reduced by 5 percent for every year (or 5/12 of…
Browsing: Early retirement
Q. I am confused and the booklets don’t make it very clear. I will be 56 in January 2011. At that time I will have 26 years and four months of service. I am a FERS employee. It was my understanding that I may be eligble for early out under the provision of 25/Any Age. Our agency has recieved an Early Out Authority from OPM. Since I am at MRA, will I have to pay any penalty for retiring before I have reached 59 — the year I will reach 30 years of service (i.e: the fractional amount for every…
Q. I am 50 years old with 27 years of federal service. I plan to leave federal service to take a job in the private sector in a few months. Will I still qualify for a federal retirement? If so, at what age? A. If you leave your retirement contributions in the retirement fund, you would be eligible for a deferred annuity at age 60. That annuity would be based on your high-3 and years and full months of service on the day you left government. Note: As a deferred annuitant, you wouldn’t be eligible for the special retirement supplement, which…
Q: I’m a FERS employee. If I retire at my minimum retirement age of 56, with 20 years in, will the retirement supplement begin four years later when I turn 60? Or does it begin at my minimum retirement age of 56? Or am I ineligible to receive it if I don’t take it immediately on retirement? A: You would be retiring under the MRA+10 provision. First, no one retiring under that provision is eligible for the special retirement supplement. Second, your annuity would be reduced by 5 percent for every year (5/12 percent per month) that you were under…
Q: As a Civil Service Retirement System employee who will have 30 years of service by mid-2011 but wont be 55 until the end of 2013, is there any way to retire in 2011? If so, what kinds of penalties would I face? A: The only way you could retire before reaching age 55 would be if your agency were to offer you an opportunity to do so. Early outs are only offered when an agency has received approval from the Office of Personnel Management based on the agency’s need to downsize or restructure its work force; those opportunities usually…
Q: Is it better to retire at 42 years old with 22 years of service ($2,900 a month), or go for 30 years and be 50 years old ($5,200 a month)? I feel it would be smarter to retire at 42; it would allow me to start another career. A: As far as this site is concerned, you’ve come to the Department of Unanswerable Questions. Only you can decide what makes better sense, always keeping in mind that the future is unknowable. What might seem like a good decision now might not look as good somewhere down the road. What…
Q: I am a Vietnam veteran with a disability rated at 40 percent. I will be 64 in September and plan on drawing my Social Security retirement benefits at that time. Will either one of these government plans be affected by the other? Also, do I receive any extra credit in my Social Security earnings for the 16 quarters served on active duty from 1966 to 1969? A: You will be able to receive both your Veterans Affairs Department disability pay and your Social Security benefit. Your Social Security benefit will be based on the number of credits you earned…
Q: I work for the Federal Bureau of Prisons. In November, I will have 20 years’ service in law enforcement and will be 49 years old. If I decide to retire right there and then, do I have to wait an extra year to collect benefits? Can I retire at age 49 with 20 years of law enforcement plus 4 years of active-duty military service? A: No, you can’t retire on an immediate annuity at age 49. You’ll have to wait until age 50 to retire under the special provision for law enforcement officers. You could, of course, resign from…
Q: I retired from the military in 2000 after 20 years of service and started receiving a regular military retirement anunity (with a 30 percent disabled Veterans Administration offset). I didn’t buy back any military time for FERS. I also am approaching age 50 and have just past 10 years FERS service. What are my best options for retiring at age 55? Also, would it still be to my advantage to buy back my military time since I do have a 30 percent disability and that could increase in the future. A: You don’t have any options for retiring at…
Q: I worked from 1972 to 1978 at the Department of Agriculture, then left to work for a private firm from 1978 to 1984. When I left, I took a refund of my retirement contributions. I didn’t work from 1984 to 1994 and returned to federal service from March 1994 to present and am covered by CSRS Offset. I am leaving federal service by the end of June. Am I eligible to receive any retirement benefits? I have 393.50 hours of SL and 303 hrs of AL and 24 hours of CT. I am 55 and will be 56 in…