Q & A
I have been told by the Office of Personnel Management that if I postpone my retirement until age 60, I would be penalized for every year I am under 62 and will not be eligible for the special retirement supplement. I am 59½ with more than 28 years in the Postal Service. Our facility is consolidating, and our jobs are at stake. I am a clerk and do not want a carrier position because of my health. I plan on retiring in February to reach my 60th birthday. If I don’t accept a carrier position, can I: 1. Take an involuntary discontinued retirement; or 2. Retire and postpone my annuity until 60 I want to receive the special retirement supplement and no penalty on annuity.
Answer: If you waited to retire until you reached age 60, you’d receive an unreduced annuity and the special retirement supplement. If you retired before age 60, you’d be retiring under the MRA+10 provision. As a result, your annuity would be reduced by 5 percent for every year you were under age 62. While you could postpone the receipt of your annuity to a later date to reduce or eliminate the age penalty, you wouldn’t be entitled to the special retirement supplement. If you were offered an opportunity to retire early by your agency, you would not only receive an unreduced annuity but also the SRS.
There is only one way that you could continue your Federal Employees Health Benefits enrollment. That’s by retiring on an immediate annuity. If you retired on an immediate annuity and postponed its receipt, you could re-enroll when you annuity begins.
Source: Reg Jones, FederalTimes.com - December 5, 2013
This posting is presented for informational purposes only and does not represent legal or financial guidance. Any opinions or interpretations presented are either those of the original author or, in the case of articles authored by the AMAC Foundation, are the opinions of AMAC Foundation staff, originally trained and accredited by the National Social Security Association (NSSA) and certified via the AMAC Foundation. Any links included in the article are valid on the posted date; socialsecurityreport.org cannot guarantee the duration of the links’ validity. NSSA and the AMAC Foundation and its staff are not affiliated with or endorsed by the Social Security Administration or any other governmental entity. To submit a question, visit our website (https://amacfoundation.org/services/) or email us at ssadvisor@amacfoundation.org. Because we are a non-profit organization, there is no charge for these services.