Returning to work after retirement comes with some special considerations. Image: PH888/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffFederal agencies often reach out to federal retirees as a potential source of recruits, especially for highly specialized jobs or when a surge in work requires building up staffing quickly. They like the idea of bringing on people who know the ropes of government work.
Meanwhile, some federal retirees seek reemployment because retirement was not turning out—financially or otherwise—they way they had hoped, or because they feel they still have more to contribute.
Returning to work after retirement comes with some special considerations, though.
If you retired voluntarily, you’ll continue to receive your annuity; however, the salary of your new position will be reduced by the amount of that annuity. For example, if your annuity was $40,000 and your salary $100,000, you’d only be paid $60,000 ($100,000 – $40,000).
If your retirement was involuntary due to such things as a RIF, job abolishment, transfer of function, reorganization or right-sizing, your annuity would stop and you’d begin receiving the full salary of your new position. As a result, you’d have the same employment status as any other federal employee in an equivalent position with a similar service history.
When you want to retire again, if you worked on a full-time, continuous basis for at least one year – or its equivalent if you worked part time – you’ll usually be entitled to a supplemental annuity. That annuity will be added to your original annuity.
On the other hand, if you worked for at least five years or equivalent, you’d usually be entitled to a re-determined annuity, which would replace the one you are currently receiving. In either case, you’d have to contribute to the retirement fund, either while employed or before you retire again, to be eligible for those additional benefits.
Note: If your annuity stopped when you took the new job, you’d have to meet the age and service requirements to be eligible to retire again.
In rare cases, you would be able to receive both your annuity and a full salary. Originally, this exception related solely to positions for which there was exceptional difficulty in recruiting or retaining a qualified employee, a direct threat to life or property, or a circumstance that warranted emergency employment.
However, over the years several other authorities have built up this same benefit to other reemployed annuitants. There is a government-wide authority called “limited time appointments,” and there are agency-specific policies, mostly at DoD. So, if you are a retiree who is being considered for reemployment, be sure to ask if one of the exceptions applies to you.
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