Quick Decision
Your Health is a Concern to You
Under both CSRS and FERS, if you retire on disability and then decide to work again, your disability benefits
may be affected. If your total income from work is more than 80% of the current salary of the position you
retired from, your disability benefits will end. They may also end if you go back to work for the Federal
government.
Also, you may at times be required to prove that you still meet the CSRS and FERS definition of disability.
In general, the combined FERS and Social Security disability benefit (if you qualify for the Social Security
benefit) will be larger than the CSRS benefit. However, it is more difficult to qualify for the Social Security
disability benefit, and you must be covered for the number of years required by Social Security. Even if you do not qualify for Social Security, the
FERS benefit is likely to be larger. Depending on your recent coverage under
Social Security, you may have to work under FERS for 5 years before Social Security disability protection is
available.
Note also that when your FERS benefits are recomputed at age 62, you may stand to lose a significant portion of
your benefit. Remember when you transfer to FERS, you take your CSRS credit with you. If your combined
CSRS and FERS benefits (under regular rules) are more than the benefit produced by the FERS disability rules,
you will receive the combined benefit. This means that the possibility of becoming disabled may be less of a
concern for CSRS employees with substantial CSRS service because of the larger accrued benefit that transfers to
FERS based on that service.