Once OPM receives your retirement application, it will notify you and provide you with a CSA (civil service annuitant) and contact number. Image: sebra/Shutterstock.com
By: Reg JonesAs usual at year’s end, a flock of you have either just retired or will soon be retiring. So, what’s next?
The short answer is that you’ll be waiting for something to happen. Specifically, you’ll be waiting to hear from OPM that your retirement application has been received and will soon be processed. Now I want to pass on some idle thoughts about what happens next in your life.
Because it’s the end of the year when holidays crash into each other, you’ll probably be busy doing things with family and friends. However, after January 1, your world will settle down and those of you who have already planned what happens next will get on with your lives. On the other hand, the rest of you will still be getting used to not having to get up for work and having a daily routine based around work.
In either case you’ll all be wondering when you can expect to receive your first annuity payment, plus any money you are due from your unused annual leave. The good news is that you should receive them as soon as your agency payroll office closes your account and issues your final paycheck, usually after two weeks. Often that final paycheck and your unused annual leave payment will arrive together; occasionally, the leave check will follow a few weeks later.
Your Annuity
Once you separate from your agency, it will begin the process of getting your retirement application to OPM. If it meets the processing standards, your application should move through your agency’s personnel and payroll offices in 30 days or less. And that’s what usually happens if you retire between February and November. However, if you retire around the end of the year, it can take longer because that’s when the bulk of employees retire. Visually, it’s like pig trying to work its way thought a python.
Hoping that all goes well, once OPM receives your retirement application, it will notify you and provide you with a CSA (civil service annuitant) number and a phone number you can use to contact them.
Assuming that there weren’t any major glitches, a few weeks later you should begin receiving your first partial annuity payment. When the process is finished, you’ll receive your first full annuity payment plus any accumulated underpayments for the time you received partial payments.
I say partial because OPM will only send you a percentage of the full amount. They do that to avoid overpayment. How partial is partial? That depends. In many, maybe most cases, around four-fifths of a back of the envelope estimate. But it can be much less, especially for those with complex situations in which time will be needed for example to finalize crediting for certain periods of service. And those cases meanwhile tend to take the longest to sort out, a double whammy. How long will it take? Again, it depends. Let’s just say it would be wise to have several, if not more, months’ worth of living expenses set aside.
In the interim payment period and then after, deductions will be taken from your annuity for such things as federal taxes and, if any, state taxes, health benefits (FEHB), life insurance (FEGLI) and survivor benefits.
As for life after work, those of you who are simply moving without break to other jobs, hobbies, or civic activities can get on with your lives. For the rest of you, as one of my old bosses used to say when bidding goodbye to one of us, “Live a good life, and always take advantage of your opportunities.”
Former head of retirement and insurance policy at the Office of Personnel Management, and longtime FEDweek contributor, Reg Jones is known throughout the federal workforce community as an authority on pay and benefits.
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