Less than One Year to Retire
Six Months Before Retirement
Resolve any debts to your employer
You should resolve any financial indebtedness to your agency. Examples
of causes for indebtedness include:
- outstanding travel advances,
- overpayments of salary,
- indebtedness for failure to return government property or for damage to
government property, or
- advanced leave.
Waiving Military Retired Pay
If you want to waive your military retired pay to receive credit for military
service in the computation of your benefit, you should write the Retired Pay
Operations Center at least 60 days before your planned retirement. Send
your waiver to:
Defense Finance and Accounting Service
U.S. Military Retirement Pay
P.O. Box 7130
London, KY 40742-7130
You can "fax" your request to 1 (888) 469-6559.
Suggested wording for your request is as follows:
"I (full name and military serial number) hereby waive my military retired
pay for Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) or Federal Employees Retirement
System (FERS) purposes effective (the day before your annuity begins).
I hereby authorize the U.S. Office of Personnel Management to withhold from
my CSRS or FERS annuity any amount of military retired pay granted beyond the
effective date of this waiver due to any delay in receiving or processing this
request."
Maximum Benefit You Can Receive
The basic Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) annuity cannot exceed 80 percent
of your high-3 average salary, excluding your unused sick leave. Generally,
you reach the 80 percent limitation when you have 41 years and 11 months of
service, not including accumulated sick leave. Fewer years of service
may result in a computation that produces the maximum benefit under special
computation formulas such as for law enforcement personnel.
Your service beyond the years which provides the maximum benefit will not be
used to compute your annuity. Instead, we will automatically refund the
retirement contributions you made during those years. Interest is paid
on this refund payment at the rate of three percent per year, compounded annually.
You can use the refund to purchase additional annuity, as if the contributions
and interest are voluntary contributions.
However, if you have federal civilian employment periods when you did not contribute
to either the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) or the Federal Employees
Retirement System (FERS), we automatically apply excess contributions toward
any deposit due for these employment
periods.
Eligibility for Medicare Coverage
You should contact the Social Security
Administration at least three months before your 65th birthday to apply
for benefits. The Social Security Administration will have records pertaining
to your eligibility for Medicare coverage. If they do not, and you or
your employer need to get a statement of your earnings for this purpose, you
can write to:
General Services Administration
National Personnel Records Center
Civilian Personnel Records
111 Winnebago Street
St. Louis, Missouri 63118
You should provide the following information in your request:
- your name, as shown on your payroll records;
- date of birth;
- Social Security Number;
- mailing address;
- years for which earnings are needed;
- name and location of employer for each year;
- reason for request;
- written signature; and,
- a statement that all other sources of information have been exhausted.
Two Months Before Retirement
Choose your exact retirement date
If you have not already done so, you should choose your exact retirement date.
Afterwards, your benefit can be estimated based on the exact date.
The best place to obtain assistance is your agency's local personnel service
center. They can provide personalized assistance and they have your employment
records. They will provide you with information on when your benefit payments
can begin based on your proposed retirement date. You will also find out
how this date affects factors used to determine the amount of your retirement
benefit, such as your length of service, high-3 average salary and the proration
of cost-of-living adjustments.
Complete your retirement application
You should carefully read the information that is part of your retirement application,
and complete and submit the forms. You do not need to submit a separate
letter of resignation. A completed and signed retirement application is
equivalent to a letter of resignation. If you are eligible for a retirement
benefit, you should not resign, intending to submit a retirement application
later. This is because if you die after separating but before filing the
application no life insurance, no survivor benefit, and no survivor health insurance
coverage would be available to your survivor(s). You should, however,
complete all the other required "exit procedures." Read more
about applying for retirement.
If you performed military
service after 1956, check on military service deposit
Your personnel office will verify with your payroll office that the deposit
to give you credit in your annuity for military service you performed after
1956 has been paid, or that arrangements have been made for complete payment
before you leave the agency's rolls.
Request Direct Deposit of Your Annuity Checks
Include your request to receive your payments by direct deposit on your retirement
application. There is a specific section of the application for that information.
If your employer sends us your retirement records electronically, via the Data
Exchange Gateway (DEG), your account information for direct deposit will be
sent to us automatically. Direct Deposit for those whose permanent address
for receiving payments is outside the United States is currently limited to
Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Panama, Spain, and the UK. However,
other retirees living outside the U.S. can arrange to have their payments electronically
deposited in a U.S. bank.
Withdrawing Money from the Thrift Savings Plan
It may take up to eight weeks to process a withdrawal after all properly completed
withdrawal forms and separation data have been received by the TSP Service Office.
Further, the TSP Service Office cannot process a withdrawal election
until they receive an Employee Data Record from your payroll office indicating
that you have separated. An unpaid TSP loan may delay disbursement of
the TSP account balance. Your employer will provide you with information
about your withdrawal options and the option to keep your money in the TSP.
If you choose not to withdraw your funds, in the event of your death
the TSP Service Office would pay the funds based on your written designation
form on file. If you have not completed a designation form, payment would
be made to your survivors as follows:
- 1. Widow or widower.
- 2. If none of the above, child or children and descendants
of deceased children by representation.
- 3. If none of the above, retiree's parents or to the
surviving parent.
- 4. If none of the above, the executor or administrator
of the retiree's estate.
- 5. If none of the above, to any other of the retiree's
next of kin who is entitled under the laws of the state in which the retiree
resided at death.
Read more about the Thrift Savings
Program.