By Reg Jones
FERS and back pay
February 24th, 2012 | Creditable service: FERS
Q: I retired Sept. 30. I have begun receiving my estimated annuity each month. When I begin receiving my FERS supplement, will it include the amounts not paid in the months after I retired but before OPM did my final annuity computations?
A: Yes, it will.
Retiring LEO
February 24th, 2012 | Creditable service: FERS
Q: I am a FERS employee who had 20 years at 6c (FF/LEO) in December. In January 2013 I will have 25 years total federal civil service (21 years 6c, 4 years non-6c, with no breaks in service). I am being told that I can retire. Is this true? OPM and retirement state “25 years of service,” not 25 years of 6c?
A: A FERS law enforcement officer can retire at age 50 with 20 years of covered service or at any age with 25 years of covered service. If you are under age 50, a combination of covered and non-covered service wouldn’t make you eligible to retire.
Tags: FERS, law enforcement, OPM
Retired military
February 23rd, 2012 | Creditable service: FERS
Q: I am 63 and a retired Marine. I started working for the VA in September of 2009 and decided not to participate in a buyback. There is a FERS deduction taken from my pay. Will I be eligible for retirement under FERS? If so, when?
A: You would be eligible for an annuity after you have completed five years of FERS service.
Tags: annuity, FERS, military service
Future pension
February 22nd, 2012 | Creditable service: FERS
Q: If I left federal service (FERS) at age 56 with 14 years of service, would I be eligible for a FERS pension at age 62?
A: If you didn’t take a refund of your retirement contributions, you’d be eligible for a deferred annuity at age 62.
Retirement-date numbers
February 21st, 2012 | Creditable service: FERS
Q: I am a FERS employee who plans to retire Nov. 30 or Dec. 31 this year or Jan. 15, 2013. My Service Computation Date is May 15, 1982. Which one is the best date to retire? I will be 59 on Aug. 20. I also read an article about losing annuity supplement if it exceeds the maximum amount
of $14,160 annually (not my Social Security benefit unless I retire at 62).
A: I can’t advise you. What I can do is give you some facts that may help you make a decision. First, the 2012 leave year ends Jan. 12, 2013. If you retire after that date, any annual leave you have above the maximum carryover will be lost. Second, as a FERS employee, if you retire after the last day of any month, you won’t be on the annuity roll until the following month. For example, if you retired Jan. 12, you wouldn’t be on the annuity roll until February. Third, to receive a full cost-of-living adjustment in the year following your retirement, you’d need to be on the annuity roll in December. Any month you retired after that would result in your COLA being reduced by 1/12th.
Tags: annuity, FERS, SOCIAL SECURITY
Retirement and pension
February 10th, 2012 | Creditable service: FERS
Q: I receive military retirement pay under FERS for 21 years of service in the Air Force. I started working a job as a federal civilian employee two years ago. I did not buy back my military time. If I continue to work as a federal civilian for another seven years (bringing my total federal
service to 30 years), how will my retirement pay be affected? Will my monthly retirement pay increase?
A: If you don’t make a deposit for your active-duty service and, at retirement, waive your military retired pay, you won’t get any credit for it in determining your years of civilian service or in your annuity computation. Assuming that you continue to work until you have 10 years of civilian service and have reached your minimum retirement age, you could retire under the MRA+10 provision. However, your annuity would be reduced by 5 percent for every year you were under age 62 unless you retired and postponed the receipt of your annuity to a later date.
Tags: FERS, military buyback
Temporary appointment poses annuity question
February 3rd, 2012 | Creditable service: FERS FERS annuity computation RETIREMENT
Q. I have 27 years of service, but two years of that is credited to me for a temporary appointment I had from 1980 to 1982. I’m under the Federal Employees Retirement System and my EOD is 1984. How will this affect my retirement, and should I or can I buy back those two years?
A. For service before Oct. 1, 1982, you have a choice. If you make a deposit for that time, plus accrued interest, it will be used in the computation of your annuity. If you don’t, your annuity will be reduced by 10 percent of the amount you owe, plus accrued interest. For any period of non-deduction service on or after Oct. 1, 1982, you have to make a deposit for that time to be used in your annuity computation.
Can military time count as creditable service?
February 1st, 2012 | Creditable service: FERS FERS annuity computation RETIREMENT
Q. My question is regarding federal pensions. I know you must complete five years of federal service to be vested in the federal government’s pension program, and three years to be vested in the Thrift Savings Plan. According to the Federal Employees Retirement System handbook, military years bought back are treated as creditable years of civilian service, and therefore would count toward retirement. Does that mean if you only had three years of federal service and bought back seven years of military time, you would have 10 years of creditable service? If I leave the federal government after this year, prior to serving five actual years of civilian employment, am I already vested for the pension (reduced)? I have already bought back my military time.
A. To be vested, you must have five years of actual FERS service. Active-duty service for which you’ve made a deposit cannot be used to meet that requirement.
Penalties for early retirement
January 31st, 2012 | Creditable service: CSRS Creditable service: FERS CSRS annuity computation Early retirement FERS annuity computation RETIREMENT
Q. I have a question about early outs. I am 53 and have 25 years of Federal Employees Retirement System service. If an offer is made in 2012, will I be penalized for the number of years I am under age 62? Reading the past posts, I am confused. Also, are health benefits based on the non-postal rate for federal employees? Is unused sick leave added to the annuity or years of service in the coming year?
A. Retiring CSRS employees are penalized for being under regular retirement age; retiring FERS employees aren’t. The premium rates for retired Postal Service employees are the same as those for all other employees and retirees. The lower premium rate for Postal Service employees is the result of union contract negotiations, which don’t carry over into retirement. FERS employees retiring before Jan. 1, 2014, will only get half credit for their unused sick leave; after that, they’ll get full credit.
How would VERA/VSIP affect retirement pay?
January 31st, 2012 | Creditable service: CSRS Creditable service: FERS CSRS annuity computation Early retirement RETIREMENT Special retirement supplement
Q. I am a Civil Service Retirement System/Federal Employees Retirement System offset employee with 31 years of service, and I have been offered Voluntary Early Retirement Authority and Voluntary Separation Incentive Payments (VERA/VSIP). I would like to know how a VERA/VSIP would affect my retirement. I have been depositing the maximum in my TSP account, and I see that the government is not required to match it. Does government matching or not matching my deposit depend on the agency I work for?
A. To estimate what your annuity would be, use the formulas for each retirement system:
FERS: 0.01 x your three highest consecutive years of average salary (your high-3) x all years and full months of FERS service.
CSRS: 0.015 x your high-3 x 5 years of CSRS service, plus 0.0175 x your high-3 x 5 years of CSRS service, plus
0.02 x your high-3 x all remaining years and full months of CSRS service.
Unused sick leave that doesn’t exceed the amount you had to your credit when you transferred to FERS will be added to your CSRS service. If you retire before 2013, half of any remaining hours will be added to your FERS service. In both cases, hours that don’t add up to a month (approximately 174 hours) will be dropped.
As a FERS employee, if you retire before age 62, you will be entitled to the special retirement supplement, which is approximately the amount of Social Security benefit earned while you were a FERS employee. Here’s the formula: Social Security benefit estimate provided by the Social Security Administration x total years of FERS service rounded up to the next higher year divided by 40.
The basic rules on the amount of a Voluntary Separation Incentive Payment are as follows: An amount equal to the severance pay you would be entitled to, without an adjustment for any previous payments made or an amount determined by the head of your agency, not to exceed $25,000. Only your agency can tell you if you’re eligible for a VSIP and, if so, in what amount.