FERS Disability Retirement

You may be eligible for a FERS Disability Retirement at any age if you…

Have at least 18 months of creditable FERS service
You became disabled while performing your government job
You can prove that the disability will last longer than one year
Your agency certifies that they are not able to accommodate your disability, and that they have considered you for other vacant positions.

FERS Disability Pension Calculation

If you qualify for a Disability Retirement before age 62, your disability benefit will be calculated at three different times…

Let’s take a closer look at the calculate for each of these times:

For the first 12 months after your qualified disability, you will receive…
60% of your High-3 Salary – 100% Eligible Social Security Disability Benefit

It is important to note that your pension will be reduced by ALL of the Social Security Disability Benefit that you are *eligible* to receive. That means that even if you don’t apply for it, your pension will be reduced by that amount anyways.

Also, some people might not think 60% of your High-3 is very much – but consider that you would have to work for 60 YEARS for the government to get 60% of your regular FERS pension.
After the first 12 months up until age 62, you will receive…
40% of your High-3 Salary – 60% Eligible Social Security Disability Benefit
At age 62 your disability benefit changes one last time…
Your pension will be recomputed using the regular FERS retirement formula. But, for your Years in Service, you get to count all the years you worked for the Federal Government AND all the years you received a Disability Pension up until age 62.

Your High-3 will also be recalculated to include all of the COLA that you would have received during your time in service until your 62nd birthday.

We covered just the basics of FERS Disability benefits, but there are other details that need to be considered.

You can find more information on FERS Disability at OPM’s site.