Guidance on Retiree Rehiring Could Be Next

The recent guidance DoD sent out on use of buyouts and early retirements under the law authorizing its new personnel system likely will be followed next, officials say, by guidance on another special retirement authority contained in that law-permission to rehire federal annuitants without an offset between their annuity and their new salary. Under current policy, such an offset is imposed except in very rare cases. However, DoD last year successfully argued before Congress that since a similar offset that had affected military retirees who took federal jobs was repealed several years ago, the federal retiree offset should be eliminated as a matter of parity. It’s unclear how extensively DoD will use the authority or what restrictions-such as unique qualifications of the candidate or high demand for employees with those skills-that DoD might impose on its own. However, the law does not specify that the retirees must have retired from DoD, potentially opening the benefit to retirees from other agencies as well.