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Return to Article: Endless Summer, Endless Questions

• 92555
  

  I retired effective 1 Aug 2009 with 35-1/2 years of federal service. My full retirement package cannot be completed because OPM has not received my employment information for my first 7 years of employment with the Dept. of Army, Ft. Ritchie, MD (which closed due to BRAC in 1998). Can you please tell me what needs to be done to get this information so that I can receive my full annuity? I do have some paperwork with my employment history from this time period. If I send it to them will they accept it as proof of service? HELP! My claims examiner will not return my phone calls or emails.

  ANN PETERS Posted November 22, 2009 11:35 PM
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  The Q&A entitled "Rumor Mill" regarding how unlikely you feel it is that a bill could get passed requiring CSRS employees to wait until age 62 to retire and use high 5 to calculate annuity is perhaps a little short-sighted and too focused on the rear view mirror. While this type legislation may have been thwarted in the past, it has never been put forth at a time of such ridiculous Gov't spending and debt. Not to mention the fact that the population of CSRS employees diminishes with each passing year. At what point will it represent such a small number of people that no one will fight for us? The Gov't is out for every penny it can get so they can keep uninformed consitituents tied to their apron strings. That way this twisted Gov't we now have can keep their power and privileges. This was never the intention of our founding fathers...for politicians to make so much money, get so many privileges, forget that they are there to SERVE the constituents and tax and spend so ridiculously. They have way over-stepped their bounds (and I've way over-stepped my initial comment!) :)

  Chris Steagall Posted September 4, 2009 10:58 AM
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  Maybe I was lucky. People who retired from my agency who had trouble by and large had problems if they decided to retire on short notice. I contacted the person assigned to handle retirements from my office over 6 months before I left. She was excellent and collected all my old information and handled getting my prior military worked out and documented. Within 2 months of leaving, OPM had everything squared away. My advice is if you can start working on this ahead of time, (I realize not everyone always can.) you will save yourself a lot of grief. This is particularly true if you had service in multiple agencies or military time.

  Jim Kaley Posted June 30, 2009 8:10 AM
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  Susan in "Help!" is a little confusing to me. She states that January 2, 2008 was her last day and now her package may be completed in July 2009. Was this meant to be be January 2, 2009 vice January 2, 2008 or did her package actually take more than 1 year and another half year?

  Tell me it ain"t so.......

  Will Posted June 30, 2009 12:26 AM
• 81608
  

  I started in Sept 1997, I've invested in the TSP from Day 1 and I'm in the FERS also-the 1%? I am 62 years old and my question is can I retire at the end of 2009 and be eligible for my TSP retirement and the FERS or do I have to wait until 1966-my full retirement age for those born in 1946? I keep getting conflicting answers depending on whom I ask. Thank you. Nora

  Nora Howlin Posted June 29, 2009 8:10 PM
• 81600
  

  In making my decision on whether to retire on 31 Dec 2009 or 1 Jan 10, do I need to take into consideration the COLA computation that I will receive as a retiree for 2010? By working one day in January, won't my COLA be prorated at 11/12 COLA for 2010? And won't that have a continuing impact for as long as my pension is paid? Richard

  Richard Posted June 29, 2009 4:31 PM
• 81462
  

  Well, I guess I was one of the very lucky ones. I retired on June 30, 2009. Even though I worked for 3 different gov agencies and had military time, I received my first estimated check on Aug. 1 (on time) and a make-up check on Aug. 16th. So my claim was completed in less than 45 days from my retirement date.

  Bob Posted June 26, 2009 3:53 PM
• 81455
  

  When did the law change? I retired under the CSRS June 3, 2005, and received a full month of retirement benefits for June 2005.

  Steven Thornberry Posted June 26, 2009 2:53 PM
• 81433
  

  Thanks for a good article. I wan't aware that we are prohibited from, using "terminal leave" and I don't recall it being covered in the 2 retirement seminars I attended. Why is Federal retirement such a minefield and a mystery?

  Bill Posted June 26, 2009 1:01 PM
• 81360
  

  After reading this issue with the retiree that has not received their pay. You mentioned divorce decrees, etc. If I have spousal sign offs of my retirement check or spouse is deceased, should I make sure my personnel office has copies of that to submit with my OPF to OPM? I am going to retire in 2010

  Kathleen Hamilton Posted June 26, 2009 8:21 AM
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  I'll need to take exception to your comment, "I would not recommend using Aug. 1, 2, or 3 as your official date, because you will get your last accumulation of annual and sick leave after completing the 80 hours of work for your final leave period, which ends as of the close of business on July 31. There's no benefit for you to have an additional three days of service, since they wouldn't be used in the computation of your retirement anyway." It happens that in the VA Healthcare System, we have employees who do not complete their 80 hours in a pay period until that Saturday. M-F workers can go on the 31st with no impact, but our shift/weekend workers (under CSRS) must go on the 1st to maximize the AL and SL for the pay period.

  Toni Petty Posted June 26, 2009 8:20 AM
• 81339
  

  re: Help! - this was my comment/question. Two things happened to hurt my retirement claim: 1. All retirement info was not sent to OPM as a package - my retirement claim and personnel records arrived, but the final close out did not and 2) the workload was so tremendous that my file was placed in a "pending" file on Feb 16 and was not assigned to a claims examiner until April 23 (along with several other applications), and mine being one that had to be calculated "by hand" put it automatically on the bottom of the stack. I believe that my claim has been completed, and is currently being "audited" - another step of which I was unaware.

  Tammy, this is no criticism of your work or the comopleteness of your articles. If not for you, I would never have had the resources to know how to retire. My criticism is of OPM, the one federal agency still in the dark ages. They have been processing retirements for many, many years and haven't learned anything.

  Susan Posted June 26, 2009 6:39 AM
• 81338
  

  Ms. Flanagan does an outstanding job! Keep up the good work!!!

  Mark St. Clair Posted June 26, 2009 6:34 AM