Changes

An employee must meet certain combinations of age and "creditable Federal service" in order to be eligible for a FERS annuity.  Certain levels of military and part-time civilian service may be "repurchased" (at a set percentage of the salary earned during that time, plus interest which compounds and changes rate over time) in order to be counted in the annuity; such repurchase is optional but must be started and completed before retirement (once the employee retires the repurchase option is no longer available).

An employee must meet certain combinations of age and "creditable Federal service" in order to be eligible for a FERS annuity.  Certain levels of military and part-time civilian service may be "repurchased" (at a set percentage of the salary earned during that time, plus interest which compounds and changes rate over time) in order to be counted in the annuity; such repurchase is optional but must be started and completed before retirement (once the employee retires the repurchase option is no longer available).

For an "immediate" retirement annuity (which starts one full calendar month after retirement), or a "deferred" annuity (which starts at age 62 or after), the majority of employees must meet one of four combinations of age and service:

For an "immediate" retirement annuity (which starts one full calendar month after retirement), or a "deferred" annuity (which starts at age 62 or after), the majority of employees (those who do not have earlier mandatory retirement ages, such as law enforcement officers, firefighters, or air traffic controllers) must meet one of four combinations of age and service:

*Age 62, 5 years of service

*Age 62, 5 years of service

*Age 60, 20 years of service (but a deferred annuity is unavailable under this combination)

*Age 60, 20 years of service (but a deferred annuity is unavailable under this combination)

*"Minimum Retirement Age" (MRA)<ref>The MRA is based on the employee's birth year, for a chart see https://www.opm.gov/retirement-services/fers-information/eligibility/.</ref>, 30 years of service

*"Minimum Retirement Age" (MRA)<ref>The MRA ranges between 55 and 57 and is based on the employee's birth year, for a chart see https://www.opm.gov/retirement-services/fers-information/eligibility/.  For example, an employee born in 1965 has a MRA of 56 years and two months; thus a person born on June 3, 1965 is eligible to retire on August 3, 2021.</ref>, 30 years of service

*MRA, 10 years of service (but if having less than 30 years of service, the annuity is permanently reduced by 5/12 of 1% for each month the employee is under age 62, unless at retirement the employee has 20 years of service and agrees to defer the annuity until age 60)

*MRA, 10 years of service (but if having less than 30 years of service, the annuity is permanently reduced by 5/12 of 1% for each month the employee is under age 62, unless at retirement the employee has 20 years of service and agrees to defer the annuity until age 60)