New Retiree
When you’ll get your first payment
In most cases, as soon as we get all your retirement records, we provide "interim"
payments. These payments represent a portion of your final benefit and
are usually made on the first business day of each month. We try to provide
you with income until we finish processing your application.
Withholdings from interim payments
We only withhold Federal income tax. You may find that the Federal income
taxes withheld from your first interim payment will be higher than the Federal
tax withholdings from your subsequent interim payments and regular annuity.
We will make any necessary tax withholding adjustment when we finish processing
your application. Your health and life insurance coverage will continue
while you are receiving interim pay. We will begin withholding health
and life insurance premiums retroactive to the commencing date of your annuity,
when we finish processing your application.
What you will receive when the Office of Personnel
Management finishes processing your application
We will send you a personalized statement titled "Your Federal Retirement
Benefits". It details, among other things, how much your monthly
payment will be. It also confirms such things as health and life insurance
coverage, and provides information you will need to prepare your tax returns.
Credit for Federal civilian service if you didn’t
make retirement contributions
Under the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), you will be given the
opportunity to pay for temporary service prior to January 1, 1989. Under
the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS), if you had service on/after October
1, 1982, for which no contributions were made, we will give you the opportunity
to pay the contributions, and will tell you what difference it makes to your
monthly benefit. If you had unpaid service prior to October 1, 1982, we
do not notify you before we finish processing your application because it generally
is not to your advantage to make the payment.
Changing your health insurance coverage after
retirement
After you retire, you will still have the opportunity to change your enrollment
from one plan to another during an annual open season. You cannot change
to another plan simply because you retired.
Changing your life insurance coverage after retirement
You can cancel or decrease your coverage at any time. You cannot increase your
coverage.
Amount of cost-of-living increase you will receive
We will prorate the first cost-of-living increase based on how long you were
retired before it is given. At that time, we will send you a notice explaining
the increase. Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) cost-of-living
increases are not provided until age 62, except for disability and survivor
benefits.
Taxable portion of your retirement benefit