If you are retiring at the end of 2024, you may have already completed and submitted your retirement applications and have begun counting down the days until your life after retirement begins. Completing the applications for retirement includes making some very important and sometimes irrevocable decisions.
Here are the retirement decisions that require careful consideration since they cannot be changed once you have been separated from your agency roles.
Date of Final Separation: AKA your retirement date.
Location of this decision:
- SF 3107 (FERS Application for Immediate Retirement), Section B, #2
- SF 2801 (CSRS Application for Immediate Retirement), Section B, #2
- RI 92-19 (FERS Application for Deferred or Postponed Retirement), Schedule B for applicants with immediate MRA + 10 eligibility, Part 2 and Schedule C for Applicants with Deferred MRA + 10 eligibility
For employees who are old enough with enough service to retire with an immediate unreduced benefit (MRA with 30 years of service; 60 with 20 years of service; or 62 with at least 5 years of creditable civilian service for FERS and 55 with 30 years; 60 with 20; or 62 with 5 years for CSRS), retirement is considered a voluntary action and you may change your mind up to the last day on the job as well as during the time while your claim is being finalized.
Once the payment based on your application has been authorized, your retirement is then permanent.
Keep in mind that if you withdraw your application after your date of final separation from your agency, you are still “separated” and would be required to be reinstated. Additionally, you may not withdraw your application if OPM has received a certified copy of a qualifying court order awarding benefits to a spouse or a former spouse.
There is also an exception allowing an agency to decline your withdrawal of a retirement application when there is a valid reason and explains this reason in writing (from 5 CFR Part 715).
A valid reason includes but is not limited to, administrative disruption or the hiring or commitment to hire a replacement. Avoidance of adverse action proceedings is not a valid reason.
An involuntary separation may qualify an employee for a discontinued service retirement when the separation is against the will and without the consent of the employee other than a separation for cause misconduct or delinquency.
This situation includes a reduction-in-force (RIF), abolishment of position, lack of funds, expiration of an incumbent’s term of office, and unacceptable performance (unless due to employee misconduct), along with other situations as outlined in 5 CFR 831.503 Regulations.
