If you’re retired and collecting a FERS pension and decide to return to federal service, here are the two situations in which your FERS annuity will stop.
To be eligible for a disability retirement under FERS, you must have at least 18 months of federal service under your belt and be completely unable to perform the functions of your federal position due to a medical condition that has left your completely disabled. On top of that, the employing federal agency has to have shown that they exhausted their resources in attempting to accommodate for the given condition. But under some circumstances, the disabling condition can improve over several months or years and the retired fed might be considering a return to employment with the federal government.
Learn all about your retirement options under FERS at our no-cost webinars for federal workers!
The most important thing to know when deciding to return to a federal job after collecting a FERS disability annuity is that the monthly pension checks will stop. This is not the case for FERS retirees who were collecting a non-disability annuity and deciding to return to service in the federal government’s civilian workforce. If your FERS annuity is stopped, your continued federal service will count toward eligibility of a non-disability FERS annuity, either as an immediate or deferred retirement.
There are some folks who worked for the Coast Guard and weren’t disabled in the traditional sense but took a disability retirement because they were medically disqualified from continuing their employment with National Coast Guard. If they were to come out of retirement and take another federal job, the same rules apply. The disability FERS retirement income would cease, and they would be working towards retiring later with a non-disability pension.
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