Reg Jones

It's question and answer time. I ask the question. You provide the answer.

By: Reg Jones Well, I've really been giving leave a workout over the last weeks, writing about Court Leave Military Leave LWOP Sick Leave

Most federal employees retire when they have the right combination of age and service to do so. However, there are two additional forms of retirement that on the surface sound alike but are actually different. One is the deferred annuity. The other is the postponed annuity.

It's a given that children who are covered under a parent's FEHB self and family or self plus one options can continue to be covered by it until age 26. That's true whether they are living at home or away from home. How it works out in practice depends. I'll get to that in a moment. First, I want to establish who qualifies as a child.

A deferred annuity is one where you have the age and service needed to retire but want to defer the receipt of your annuity to a later date.

There's a lot of confusion about how a federal employee's annuity is treated when it comes to federal taxes. Years ago, the rules were simple. The tax code held that the retirement contributions deducted from your pay would be tax free when you retired and began receiving an annuity.

It's time to get back to basics. Many of you have asked me how your retirement will be calculated when you retire. One good reason for asking is that you want to know how much money you'll be entitled to before you make the plunge. With that in mind, I'll now go over the rules governing the computation of CSRS and FERS annuities for most federal employees. I'll start with CSRS because even if there are fewer of you left in the federal service, your computation is the simplest to describe.

By: Reg Jones Last week I wrote about employees who spend a full career in federal service and retire when they meet the age and service requirements to do so.

By: Reg Jones I recently read a question that a reader posted that got me thinking, and I've rewritten it to clear away any confusion and

It's back to basics time. In the federal government, both within-grade increases (WGIs) and quality step increases (QSIs) are mechanisms designed to reward employee performance, yet they differ significantly in their application and impact on an employee's pay.