Helping Federal Employees and Annuitants Understand Their Benefits
A special 20-year retirement system was created for certain designated positions which require employees to meet vigorous physical demands. Because of the physical demands, this retirement system allows employees to retire sooner, with just 20 years of service. It also includes a mandatory retirement when the employee reaches a designated age or years of service.
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Eligibility to retire under the special 20-year provision depends on the both the retirement system (CSRS or FERS) and the position.
Positions covered under the 20-year retirement system
Check Block 30 of your Notification of Personnel action, SF-50. If you are covered under the special retirement system, the retirement code will be either:
|
CSRS
Retirement Eligibility |
|
|
Law
Enforcement Officers (LEO),
Firefighters (FF), and Nuclear Weapons Couriers (NWC) |
|
|
|
Years
of Service |
|
50 |
20 |
|
Note: You must have 3
years primary coverage first, followed by secondary coverage with no
break. |
|
|
FERS
Retirement Eligibility
|
|
|
Law
Enforcement Officers (LEO), Firefighters
(FF), and Nuclear Weapons Couriers (NWC) |
|
|
Age |
Years
of Service |
|
50 |
20 |
|
Any Age |
25 (at least 3 years primary) |
|
Note: You must have 3 years primary coverage first, followed by
secondary coverage with no break. |
|
|
CSRS
and FERS Eligibility |
|
|
Air
Traffic Controllers (ATC) |
|
|
Age |
Years
of Service |
|
50 |
20 |
|
Any Age |
25 |
Under both CSRS and FERS, the payroll deductions for CSRS/FERS are ½ percent more than for regular federal employees. Under the special provisions for FERS, the payroll deduction is 1.3% and for CSRS, the payroll deduction is 7.5%.
To meet the goal of maintaining a young and vigorous work force, a mandatory separation provision applies to these positions. Employees must be separated when they meet specific age and service requirements. The law does allow departmental agency heads to waive mandatory retirement when it is in the public interest.
|
Mandatory Retirement |
||
|
Group |
Age |
Years
of Service |
|
LEO/FF/NWC |
57 |
20 |
|
ATC |
56 |
20 |
Employees without 20 years of covered service at age 56 or 57, are separated at the end of the month in which they attain 20 years of covered service. If an employee is no longer in a position under the special retirement provisions, the mandatory separation provisions do not apply.
The law also allows federal agencies to establish maximum entry age of 36 or
37, which allows the employee to attain the 20 years of service before the
mandatory retirement age.
To be eligible for the 20-year retirement, LEO/FF/NWC employees must occupy a “primary” position for 3 or more years and move directly to the secondary position by reassignment, promotion or change to lower grade. The primary position information is not applicable to ATC positions. Primary and secondary positions are defined as:
Primary position means a position whose work is directly connected with:
Secondary position is usually consider a natural successor position from a primary position, but may not have the same physical requirements. The secondary position must:
Federal employees and recent retirees with security
clearances
can search thousands of
high-paying defense and government contractor jobs.
Many retire early to pursue another career, explore hobbies, travel, or to learn a new interesting skill. Federal employees that do retire early consider going back to school to finish a degree that they started years ago or to explore areas of interest; everything from archeology, general sciences, engineering, and IT. Others simply want to remove themselves from the intense environment they were working in and need a BREAK!
There are many job opportunities for skilled federal retirees and we have a comprehensive jobs board on this site that will help you find other, less stressful, employment in all areas. The nice thing about an early federal retirement is that you have a safety net that most will never have in their lives, a FEDERAL ANNUITY, health care and FEGLI insurance.