Quote:
Originally Posted by Kathi49
Congratulations Ordinary Girl! I am happy for you! 
Janke,
You seem very knowledgeable about all of this. So, I was wondering if you could help me out on a calculation. I am a retired Fed and know that the WEP will affect me for having been a CSRS employee. But I was only a CSRS employee for a short time; then turning into CSRS OFFSET right around 1986. and avoiding FERS altogether. But before I go further I just wanted to know if you could help with calculation. In any case, I paid into SS for many years. I tried using the WEP calculator on the SSA website but am not so sure it is accurate. Thanks! Oh, and I had read that the GPO and WEP might be eliminated but am certain that will take awhile if ever. 
Sorry Ordinary Girl, I didn't mean to hijack your thread. I apologize for that. It is just that Janke has responded with so much good information. |
I am a CSRS offset retired fed (SSA -SSI claims rep specialist) as well (guess I am out of the closet)
As an SSI specialist, I am more familiar with SSI than I am with my own retirement and I am not an expert. I would trust the OPM web site. But, I will tell you that there MIGHT be some kind of exception to WEP as a CSRS Offset retiree if you have more than 20 years covered by Social Security, according to what I have read. So you need to read more. Also, CSRS Offset employees are exempt from GPO which helped a friend of mine who retired from SSA at age 60 as a CSRS offset annuitant AND was a widow. No reduction in her widow's benefit because of her CSRS pension which would have applied if she were strictly a CSRS employee, not a CSRS offset. In my retirement package, I got an estimate of the reduction in my CSRS offset annuity based on the Social Security that was estimated I would get at age 62. It wasn't that much. Didn't you get one? Another CSRS offset guy I met said he was really surprised at how low his reduction in his CSRS pension was when he turned 62. His SS retirement was significantly larger than the reduction in his CSRS pension. Of course, it is all based on individual numbers, dates, amounts. CSRS offset may actually be a better deal than straight CSRS and is definitely more generous than Social Security. You can google and find lots of information, not just at opm website. And I think I will double check this too for myself.
I can't imagine a Congress that would choose to eliminate WEP and GPO and pay out more in Social Security that would hasten the insolvency projections, no more than they would change the "notch" issue that so many now 85 year olds thought was so unfair. AARP may make alot of noise about it, but I can't see it happening and don't think it is financially viable.
To most of the posters at this site, we are talking a different language, but I thought I'd try to answer her question. But DON'T TRUST ME. My information is strictly anecdotal and may not apply to Kathy49.