Browsing: retirement benefits

Q. I was federally employed as a Border Patrol agent in November 1988, then joined the FBI in June 1991 and was fired May 2011 (no break in service since November ’88). I was 48. I can find no answers regarding retirement benefits. I was told I forfeited everything, but I could find nothing in writing. What are my options?

Q: My husband retired under the Civil Service Retirement System Offset program and had a 55 percent survivor benefit for me. I am Federal Employees Retirement System employee, and I will be retiring in three years with the maximum survivor benefit for him. Whoever dies first, will the other one receive survivor benefits and will the survivor’s other federal benefits be reduced by how much they receive from the deceased? A: There wouldn’t be any reduction. You would be able to receive both your own annuity and the survivor benefit provided by your deceased spouse.

Q: I voluntarily retired after 37 1/2 years with the Internal Revenue Service on Jan. 3, 2007, under the Civil Service Retirement System. From July 2007 to Dec. 6, 2009, I served as a contractor to the Health and Human Services Department. I was then hired as a full-time employee. Human resources made a mistake and did not offset my annuity until March 2010. As a result, this left me with only $38 in net pay and a debt of $15K because my salary was not offset. HHS wants me to continue to provide my services so they offered to…

Q: I went to a Civil Service Retirement System seminar recently and an interesting question about retirement calculation came out during your Q-and-A: What I fail to follow was the first two options (of three) you mentioned regarding the basic life insurance choices. First, if I opted to keep my basic life insurance at its current level, would that mean that the insurance’s face value would remain the same for me as when I was employed through the rest of my retirement years? I would then assume that I will still continue to pay the same premium on basic life…

Q: Which states do not tax federal retirement benefits? A: States with no personal income taxes include Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming. Those states that exempt the total amount of civil service annuities include Alabama, North Carolina (beginning in 1998 if the individual had five years of creditable government service as of Aug. 12, 1989), Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania, New York, Kentucky (only if retired before Jan. 1, 1998), Hawaii, Oregon (not taxed if retired before Oct. 1, 1991; if retired on that date or later, only taxed on the portion earned after that…