Deferred Retirement for a Departing Federal Employee

In a recent article about your federal benefits if you leave federal service before becoming eligible to retire, I devoted one small paragraph to an important fact.

If you leave your retirement contributions on deposit with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and had five or more years of creditable federal civilian service, you will be entitled to a deferred annuity (pension) at a later date.

This article is a brief description of what OPM calls “deferred retirement”.

Facts About Deferred Retirement

Let’s look at some of the facts about deferred retirement.

• Under deferred retirement you are not allowed to enroll in Federal Employee Health Benefits (FEHB). Per OPM rules, only those who are entitled to an “immediate annuity” can take their FEHB into retirement.
• The same applies to your Federal Employees Group Life Insurance (FEGLI).
• FERS deferred retirees are not eligible for the Retiree Annuity Supplement.
• If a former employee dies before they are eligible to apply to OPM for a deferred annuity, their surviving spouse will be ineligible for a survivor annuity, and will only receive a refund of the deceased employee’s retirement contributions.

Deferred Retirement Differences Under FERS and CSRS

Eligibility criteria for deferred retirement differs between CSRS and FERS, with the FERS criteria being more flexible. The criteria are listed in the table below.