Federal Pension Reports

Most federal employees are covered by either the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) or the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS). There is an important difference between these two plans. Participants in CSRS are not covered by Social Security while participants in FERS are. This usually means that Social Security Offsets are routinely prepared in cases involving a CSRS participant. (see Social Security Offsets for more information) Other than this difference and a slight difference in the benefit formula these two plans are similar.

These plans both require five years to be vested and allow participants to retire at age 62 as long as they are vested. To retire early the participant must retire from active service and can do so at age 60 if they have 20 years of service, or between age 55 and 57 with 30 years of service depending on when they were born.