Preparing for Phased Retirement?
View this article online at https://www.fedsmith.com/2014/10/16/preparing-for-phased-retirement/ and visit FedSmith.com to sign up for free news updatesIf a person is planning for a phased retirement, applications will be accepted beginning on November 6. If you do not know what phased retirement is and if it will be useful for you, check out several other articles on this topic such as Phased Retirement Moving Forward and What We Know So Far About Phased Retirement.
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has drafted documents for agencies in order to help them plan for phased retirement.
Here is a listing of the documents that will be posted on the OPM website in their final version on November 6, 2014. This may be useful for those readers who may be planning to take advantage of this new benefit. Be sure to download the final documents when the become available. FedSmith will also provide the final documents for our readers as soon as they are available.
- Draft – Phased Employment/Phased Retirement Status Elections
- Draft – Information & Instructions for Completing an Application for Phased Retirement under the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS)
- Draft – Information & Instructions for Completing an Application for Full Retirement Status (from Phased Retirement) under the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS)
- Draft – Information & Instructions for Completing an Application for Phased Retirement under the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS)
- Draft – Information & Instructions for Completing an Application for Full Retirement Status (from Phased Retirement) under the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS)
Applications will not be accepted before November 6 and some agencies will be implementing the program sometime after that date, possibly as late as sometime in 2015. Be sure to check with your human resources office for details concerning how phased retirement will work in your agency. It is also possible that some agencies will not implement phased retirement at all.
Also note that the FERS Annuity Supplement will not be available to FERS employees while they are in the phased retirement program. However, the FERS Annuity Supplement may be paid after an employee in phased retirement status fully retires and begins receiving a regular annuity.