Developments at OPM: The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) published a Proposed Rule in the June 5, 2013 edition of the Federal Register (78 Fed.Reg. 33,912-33,939). The Proposed Rule contains OPM’s proposed regulations for implementing the FERS phased retirement created by Section 100121 of Pub.L. 112-141, as previously analyzed in this blog. Comments on this Proposed Rule must be received by OPM by August 5, 2013.
Under the new “phased retirement” system, a retirement-eligible employee can make a one-time election to work part-time and begin collecting part of their federal pension at the same time. The proposed regulations only allow the employee the option of working half-time while receiving 50% of the pension. Pub.L. 112-141 gave OPM the option of allowing retirement percentages other than the default 50%, but OPM opted not to invoke that authority at this time–although it left the door open for later amendments to its regulations to make other partial retirement percentages available in the future. Phased retirement participants outside of the Postal Service are required to spend 20% of their work time in mentorship activities (subject to a limited waivers by the employing agencies), and continue to accrue pro rata retirement service credit for the time that they still work. Participants then may elect to fully retire at any time, at which point their pension is recomputed to reflect their additional phased retirement work. Alternatively, participants can elect to return to full-time work with the consent of their employing agency, and then receive partial retirement service credit for the phased retirement period when the employee later decides to fully retire.
If you are a current federal employee who is covered by FERS and would like to discuss your rights under this new law, please contact the law firm of Passman & Kaplan, P.C. to request a consultation.
