By Reg Jones
Service credit receipt
February 24th, 2011 | RETIREMENT
Q: I paid my service credit in full in 2005 but can’t locate my paid receipt which I need for retirement.
A: Your CSD number should be sufficient proof. However, if you want additional proof you can go to scbillings@opm.gov.
Tags: OPM
Spousal benefit
February 24th, 2011 | RETIREMENT
Q: I am a 1998 CSRS/FERS transfer. My wife is retired and collecting a Social Security benefit. Next year when I turn 66 I thought I would take a spousal benefit off of my wife’s Social Security. Is it not true that because I have more than five years in FERS there is no GPO reduction in that spousal benefit? About a year later I plan to retire and start receiving my annuity of CSRS/FERS retirement. Even though I then would be receiving a pension that partially consists of CSRS where no Social Security was paid, wouldn’t there still be no GPO as I had completed more than five years in FERS? I wanted to do this so I could wait until age 70 before collecting my Social Security off of my own earnings, thus reducing the WEP penalty as I would have a total of over 25 years of Social Security earnings.
A: Because you have at least five years of creditable service under FERS, any Social Security spousal benefit you are entitled to won’t be affected by the government pension offset.
Tags: CSRS, FERS, RETIREMENT, SOCIAL SECURITY, WEP
Postal retiree and health insurance
February 24th, 2011 | RETIREMENT
Q: If I retired from the postal service but am still carrying the medical coverage through them. Is it necessary to elect the Part B coverage? I am not drawing Social Security because I am not eligible until I turn 66. I am under the Civil Service portion of the postal retiree plan and am still carrying my spouse on my medical coverage.
A: You don’t have to sign up for Medicare Part B if you don’t want to. It’s optional.
Tags: HEALTH INSURANCE, Medicare, USPS
Agency reassignment in existing vacancy
February 24th, 2011 | RETIREMENT
Q: I’ve been informed that I will be “reassigned within the agency to fill existing vacancies”. My agency is NARA and I work at two locations: Washington, D.C., and College Park, Md. Could they offer me reassignment to another location within the NARA organization, other than these two places? What would be my preference for the existing vacancies, with 30 percent disabled veteran status and 14 years with the federal government, and 4 years and 11 months of military service? I’m a GS-11, step 5.
A: A reassignment at the same grade or pay can be made anywhere within your commuting area. Your agency can tell you what that is. In addition, if you signed a mobility agreement when you went to work for them, they could assign you to a position outside your commuting area. Your veteran status, years of service and grade have nothing to do with what you are offered or what you can accept.
Tags: military service
Estimate of retirement annuity
February 24th, 2011 | RETIREMENT
Q: Is it possible for me to determine how much of an annuity I might expect to receive if I were to obtain a government job? I have approximately nine years of prior federal government service and I was under the CSRS retirement system. I also have two years of military time that I would like to include if possible. I would plan on buying in on my military time but not repaying my CSRS retirement that I withdrew at the time I left government service in 1985. I am 62 years old and would like to work between one and three more years under CSRS Offset. If my salary with the government job I am attempting to get is $100,000 per year, what kind of annuity might I expect?
A: If you returned to work for the government and made a deposit for your period of active duty service, you’d get credit for that time when your annuity was computed. If you didn’t redeposit the refund of your retirement contributions. plus accrued interest, your annuity would be actuarially reduced based on the amount you owe and your age when you retire. To do that computation, you’d have to know both how much you owe and the present value factor for the age at which you retire. Since you’d be retiring on or after reaching age 62, your annuity would automatically be reduced by the amount of Social Security benefit you earned while employed under CSRS Offset. You’d also be subject to the windfall elimination provision, which would reduce your annuity if you had fewer than 30 years of substantial earnings under Social Security. With that many variables involved, it wouldn’t be possible to provide you with an estimate of your annuity.
Tags: annuity, CSRS offset, RETIREMENT
Last day of employment
February 24th, 2011 | RETIREMENT
Q: Do you know where I can find the OPM directive that states you must report to work on your last day? I cannot find anything about this topic on the Internet. Someone told me it was a Comptroller General’s decision (circa 1954). I was unsuccessful finding that.
A: There is no such requirement. That’s why you can’t find it.
Tags: RETIREMENT
FERS and retirement
February 24th, 2011 | RETIREMENT
Q: If an employee is any age with 25 years of service or age 50 with 20 years of service, will the employee be penalized in the case of an early-out retirement if OPM has determined that the agency is undergoing a major reorganization, reduction in force, or transfer of function?
A: Those age and service combination would only be available in the circumstances you mentioned and you were one of those to whom an offer of early retirement was made. If you were a CSRS employee, you annuity would be reduced by 2 percent for every year you were younger than 55. There wouldn’t be any age penalty if you were a FERS employee.
Tags: OPM, RETIREMENT
Retirement formula
February 24th, 2011 | RETIREMENT
Q: I am 54 with 21 years of combined military and federal service. I fall under the CSRS plan. The highest paygrade I have had is GS-7. How do I figure out my pay for retirement, what is the formula? I would like to get a general idea of how much my pay would be at this point and time if I could retire.
A: For CSRS employees, the formula is:
0.015 x your high-3 x 5 years of service, plus
0.0175 x your high-3 x 5 years of service, plus
0.02 x your high-3 x all remaining years and full months of service
You can either get out a pencil and paper and do the arithmetic or go to www.FEDbens.us and use the handy software you’ll find there.
Tags: CSRS, high-3, RETIREMENT
Retirement health benefits
February 24th, 2011 | RETIREMENT
Q: My husband, five years my senior, retired last year and now has Medicare. I have no insurance. I am 60 and unemployed. Will Medicare cover me for health care, and if so, what will the cost be?
A: According to the official Medicare website, “Medicare is not offered as a family or dependent benefit. This means all people who have Medicare must qualify on an individual basis. For example, a person under age 65 does not automatically receive Medicare because their spouse is 65 or older and enrolled in the Medicare program.”
Tags: Medicare, RETIREMENT
Retirement calculations
February 24th, 2011 | RETIREMENT
Q: I am a former government employee with more than nine years of service under CSRS and 22 months of military service. When I left the federal government in 1985 I withdrew all of my contributions to CSRS. I am 62 years old and I am now considering getting a federal government job with the hopes of working long enough to get an annuity under CSRS offset. My understanding is that the calculations of your high-3 are based upon three consecutive years of pay. Is this correct? Would I need to work three years to be eligible for an annuity? Or if I only worked one year, would my high-3 be based upon the high three years that I had under my prior government job?
A: A high-3 is based on an employee’s three highest consecutive years of average salary. If you returned to work for one year, your high-3 would be based on that year’s basic pay plus the last two years of your previous federal employment. Note: Unless you redeposited the retirement contributions that were refunded to you, including accrued interest, when you retired your annuity would be actuarially reduced based on the amount you owe and your age.