By Reg Jones
VERA/VSIP status
July 22nd, 2011 | Special category employee retirement
Q: I work at Kirtland AFB, N.M. A VERA/VSIP survey was sent out in May 2011 with a suspense date of May 21 to show interest. I completed the survey and received confirmation that it was received. The VERA/VSIP is scheduled for FY 2011/2012. It’s been over a month and I haven’t heard anything. Does your office know any status?
A: We haven’t heard a thing.
Tags: CSRS
Mandatory retirement
March 1st, 2011 | Special category employee retirement
Q: I entered federal civil service in March 2007 as an Air Reserve
technician. I bought back 10 years of military service. I turn 51 in August. I have heard I must retire at age 56 due to being an Air Reserve technician. However, I won’t have 30 years of service. Is this true?
A: What you were told was untrue. Go to http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/uscode/10/E/l/1007/10218 and read what the law has to say about mandatory retirement for reserve technicians.
Tags: military buyback, retire
Transferring to a non-LEO position
December 30th, 2010 | Creditable service: FERS FERS annuity computation RETIREMENT Special category employee retirement Special retirement supplement
Q: I am a federal law enforcement employee with 20 years covered by the Federal Employees Retirement System FERS plus five years worth of military buyback time. I have six more years before I will face mandatory retirement at my 57th birthday. I want to transfer to a non-LEO position with another federal agency so I can keep working. Please confirm that if I do transfer to a non-LEO position with another federal agency that I can keep working past 57 and not face mandatory retirement, and that my 20 years of FERS LEO service will transfer over at the 1.7 percent per year retirement rate as a part of my overall pension. Neither the Office of Personnel Management nor my human resources office have confirmed this for me.
A: If you transfer to a noncovered position, you can continue working as long as you want. When you retire, your 20 years of covered service will be computed using the special, enhanced formula. The rest of your service will be calculated using the standard multiplier of 0.01 percent, unless you retire at age 62 or later. In that case, those years would be multiplied by 0.011 percent.
Tags: Federal Employees Retirement System, FERS, law enforcement, law enforcement officer, LEO, mandatory retirement, mandatory retirement date, multiplier
Leaving law enforcement, staying fed
October 12th, 2010 | RETIREMENT Special category employee retirement
Q: I’m in a 6C law enforcement covered position and will be reaching 20 years of service in that same position this coming January. I will be 46 years old. As soon as I reach 20 years, can I transfer out of the LE series to an administrative job (no 6C coverage) and still have my complete enhanced retirement benefits when I decide to retire 10 years from now?
A: Yes, you can.
Law enforcement re-employment
August 5th, 2010 | EMPLOYMENT POST-RETIREMENT Re-employment Special category employee retirement
Q: I retired from federal service in 2006 under the law enforcement retirement provision. I have since been re-employed by the government with a waiver for a temporary law enforcement position that allows me to receive both my annuity and the full salary of my new job. I have been informed that when my temporary position ends, the Office of Personnel Management will recalculate my retirement. Are there are any special provisions that would apply to my situation due to being re-employed with a waiver? Because I have not been contributing to retirement in my temporary position, would the recalculation just involve additional years of service?
A: You’ll need to find out which appointment authority was used to hire you, because with rare exception, anyone who receives a waiver that allows him to keep his salary and the full salary of his position isn’t entitled to any additional retirement credit for the time he is re-employed. If your authority does allow you to get credit for that time, you’d have to work one year to be entitled to a supplemental annuity and at least five years to have your annuity recomputed. In either case, you’d have to make a deposit to the retirement system to get that credit.
Tags: annuity, law enforcement, law enforcement retirement, LEO, Office of Personnel Management, OPM, re-employment
Social Security and TSP funds
June 21st, 2010 | Earnings test RETIREMENT SOCIAL SECURITY Special category employee retirement
Q: For those covered under the law enforcement provision of the Federal Employees Retirement System, is the Social Security earnings test applied toward funds received from their Thrift Savings Plan if those amounts exceed the earnings test for the special law enforcement officer/firefighter Social Security supplement after their minimum retirement age?
A: No. The Social Security earnings test only applies to earnings from wages or self-employment.
Tags: Earnings test, Federal Employees Retirement System, FERS, firefighter, law enforcement, SOCIAL SECURITY, Thrift Savings Plan, TSP
Credit toward law enforcement retirement
June 15th, 2010 | RETIREMENT Special category employee retirement
Q: I will have been in federal law enforcement for 25 years as of April 2011. I will be 46 years old at that point. In my first 15 years of service, I was in a covered law enforcement position. The next two years, I was in a law enforcement position that was not covered. In last seven years, I again have been in a covered position. Will I be eligible to retire in 2011 at the age of 46, or do I have to add the two years I was in the uncovered position onto the 25 years?
A: Any period of service when you weren’t in a covered position won’t count when determining your eligibility to retire under the special provision for law enforcement officers. You need to have 20 years of covered service to retire at age 50 or 25 years of covered service to retire at any age.
Tags: covered position, law enforcement officer, law enforcement retirement, LEO, noncovered position
LEO retirement eligibility and re-employment
June 15th, 2010 | Creditable service: FERS Early retirement RETIREMENT Special category employee retirement
Q: I am covered by the Federal Employees Retirement System’s law enforcement retirement plan. I have 11 years in as a law enforcement officer plus three years of federal service as a non-LEO. I am 48 and am considering retirement to go back to school. I may return to federal service at some point, but not as an LEO. I would be retiring without having 20 years of service or reaching my mandatory retirement age of 57.
I know there are benefits to retiring as opposed to resigning (especially as an LEO), but what are the major pension pros and cons? Also, if I retire, how does deferment and the eventual pension work? And if I re-enter service before my mandatory retirement age, does the clock restart at that point?
A: You can’t retire. While you have at least 10 years of service, you aren’t old enough. If you resign, which is your only option if you want to go back to school now, you could return to work for the government at a later date. However, because the mandatory retirement age for law enforcement officers is 57, it’s unlikely that you’d be rehired into a covered position. On the other hand, if you were, you’d be allowed to continue working beyond age 57 until you hit 20 years of covered service. Alternatively, you could take a noncovered position and retire under the less-generous provisions that govern such positions. In either case, if you were re-employed, you would get credit for any prior service if you didn’t take a refund of your retirement contributions. If you did, you’d have to redeposit that amount plus accrued interest.
Early retirement from law enforcement
June 14th, 2010 | Deferred retirement Early retirement RETIREMENT Special category employee retirement
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 the government and apply for a deferred annuity when you reach your minimum retirement age. MRAs range between 55 and 57, depending on your year of birth. If you did that, your annuity would be based on your high-3 on the day you left government, and you wouldn’t be allowed to re-enroll in either the Federal Employees Health Benefits program or the Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance program.
Tags: Deferred annuity, Early retirement, high-3, law enforcement, military, miltary service, minimum retirement age, MRA
Leaving law enforcement, staying in government
May 18th, 2010 | Special category employee retirement
Q: If I was in a law enforcement-covered position for eight years, then took a noncovered position for seven years, then moved back to a covered position, what time would count toward the LEO-covered retirement? I was told that as long as you had served three years in a covered position, you were vested and your service would continue in the special-category retirement as long as you had no break in federal service.
A: As long as you are in a primary law enforcement position for the requisite period of time and have a total 20 years of covered service, you will be eligible for retirement under the special provision. Those years don’t have to be consecutive to qualify you for that benefit.
Tags: law enforcement, law enforcement retirement, LEO, LEO retirement, special category retirement