Can Federal Employees Retire Before 65? FERS Eligibility After 20 or 30 Years

Yes. Federal employees under FERS can begin collecting a pension well before 65, and in some cases before 60. Eligibility is based on a combination of age and years of creditable service, not a single retirement age. An employee with 30 years of service can retire with an unreduced pension at their Minimum Retirement Age, which is 57 for anyone born in 1970 or later. An employee with 20 years can retire with an unreduced pension at 60.

The rules are specific, and the difference between hitting a threshold and missing it by a few months can permanently change the size of the check. Here is how FERS eligibility actually works.

What is the FERS Minimum Retirement Age?

Your Minimum Retirement Age, or MRA, depends on your birth year. The Office of Personnel Management publishes this table:

The months matter. An employee born in 1967 reaches MRA at 56 and 6 months, not 56.

What are the FERS immediate retirement thresholds?

An immediate retirement benefit is one that starts within 30 days of the date you stop working. OPM lists four combinations:

The first three produce an unreduced benefit. The fourth does not, which is the point most people miss.

What is the MRA+10 penalty?

If you retire at your MRA with at least 10 but fewer than 30 years of service, your benefit is reduced by 5% for every year you are under 62. That reduction is permanent.

There is one exception. The reduction does not apply if you have 20 years of service and your benefit starts at age 60 or later.

To put the math in context: an employee retiring at 57 with 15 years of service is five years under 62, which produces a 25% permanent reduction. The same employee waiting until 62 avoids the reduction entirely.

There is also a middle path. You can postpone the start of an MRA+10 annuity, which reduces or eliminates the age reduction. Whether postponing makes sense depends on the individual's cash flow needs, health, other income sources, and health insurance situation, since postponing affects FEHB coverage (see below).

How is the FERS pension calculated?

OPM uses two formulas:

• 1% of your high-3 average salary for each year of service. This applies if you are under 62 at separation, or if you are 62 or older but have fewer than 20 years of service.
• 1% of your high-3 average salary for each year of service. This applies only if you are 62 or older at separation and have 20 or more years of service.

Both conditions must be met for the 1.1% multiplier. Being 62 with 19 years of service gets 1%, not 1.1%.

Your high-3 is the highest average basic pay you earned during any three consecutive years of service. It is usually the final three years, but it can be an earlier period if your pay was higher then. Basic pay includes amounts from which retirement deductions are withheld. It does not include overtime or bonuses.

Law enforcement officers, firefighters, air traffic controllers, and certain other categories use an enhanced formula: 1.7% of high-3 for up to 20 years of covered service, plus 1% of high-3 for service beyond 20 years.

What is the FERS annuity supplement, and who gets it?

OPM calls it the retiree annuity supplement. It is a benefit paid until age 62 to certain FERS employees who retire before 62 with an immediate annuity, and it approximates the value of your FERS service in a Social Security benefit. It exists to bridge the gap between early retirement and Social Security eligibility.

You are generally eligible if you retire with an immediate annuity at or after your MRA with at least 30 years of service, or at age 60 with at least 20 years of service. Certain special-provision and early-retirement categories also qualify. Separately, you must have at least one full calendar year of civilian service creditable under FERS. Military service does not count toward that one-year requirement.

You are not eligible at any time if you retire under MRA+10, if you are only eligible for a deferred annuity, if you are a disability retiree, or if you retire at 62 or later.

This is a significant planning point. MRA+10 retirees take both the 5% per year reduction and the loss of the supplement.

The supplement stops at the earlier of the last day of the month in which you turn 62, or the last day of the month before you would first be entitled to Social Security benefits.

Does working in retirement reduce the supplement?

Yes. The supplement is subject to the same annual earnings test that applies to Social Security. If your post-retirement earnings exceed the exempt amount, the supplement is reduced by $1 for every $2 earned above it. For 2026, the Social Security annual earnings test exempt amount for people under full retirement age is $24,480.

The reduction is applied on a one-year lag. OPM surveys your earnings annually and adjusts the following year's supplement.

Earnings for this purpose means wages plus net self-employment income. Investment income, pensions, and TSP withdrawals are not counted.

Two important carve-outs. The reduction applies only to the supplement, not to your basic FERS annuity. And the reduction does not apply to law enforcement officers, firefighters, air traffic controllers, and military reserve technicians until they reach their MRA.

What is early retirement under FERS, and how is it different?

Early retirement covers two situations: discontinued service retirement following an involuntary separation, and voluntary early retirement (VERA) offered by an agency during a major reorganization or reduction in force. Neither is something an employee can elect unilaterally. The thresholds are age 50 with 20 years of service, or any age with 25 years of service.

What about deferred retirement?

If you leave federal service before meeting the age and service requirements for an immediate benefit, and you have at least five years of creditable civilian service, you may be eligible for a deferred benefit later. Payments can begin at 62 with five years, at MRA with 30 years, or at MRA with 10 years. The same 5% per year reduction applies to the MRA+10 version.

Deferred retirees do not receive the annuity supplement, and generally cannot carry federal health insurance into retirement.

Can you keep federal health insurance if you retire early?

Generally yes, if two conditions are met. You must be entitled to retire on an immediate annuity, and you must have been continuously enrolled or covered in any FEHB plan for the five years of service immediately before your annuity starts, or for the full period since your first opportunity to enroll if that is less than five years.

MRA+10 retirees who begin an immediate annuity can carry FEHB into retirement, even though they are not eligible for the annuity supplement. Those are two separate rules, and confusing them is common. If you postpone an MRA+10 annuity instead, FEHB coverage ends at separation and can be resumed on the date the annuity begins.

Coverage under Medicare does not count toward the five-year requirement. Time covered as a family member under someone else's FEHB enrollment does count.

Can military service count toward FERS eligibility?

Often, yes, and for veterans in federal civilian service this can move a retirement date meaningfully.

To receive FERS credit for military service performed after 1956, you must pay a deposit. The deposit is generally 3% of military basic pay, though it is 3.25% for service in 1999 and 3.4% for service in 2000. There is a two-year interest-free period; for employees first employed subject to FERS on or after January 1, 1987, interest begins accruing two years from the date of first employment under FERS.

The deposit must be paid to your employing agency before you stop working for the government. If it is not paid, the military service does not count.

If you are receiving military retired pay, you generally cannot also credit that service toward FERS unless you waive the retired pay. Limited exceptions exist for retired pay awarded due to certain service-connected disabilities and for retirement from a reserve component under Chapter 1223, Title 10.

Frequently asked questions

Can I retire at 57 under FERS?

Yes, if 57 is your MRA and you have at least 30 years of service, you can retire with an unreduced pension. With 10 to 29 years at MRA, you can still retire immediately, but the benefit is permanently reduced by 5% for each year you are under 62.

What is the earliest a federal employee can collect a FERS pension?

For most employees under normal voluntary retirement, the earliest is your MRA, which ranges from 55 to 57 depending on birth year. Law enforcement officers, firefighters, air traffic controllers, and certain other special-provision employees can retire voluntarily at age 50 with 20 years of covered service, or at any age with 25 years of covered service. Separately, discontinued service retirement and voluntary early retirement provisions can allow age 50 with 20 years, or any age with 25 years.

Does the FERS supplement last forever?

No. It ends at age 62, or earlier if you become entitled to Social Security benefits before then.

Do I lose the FERS supplement if I take another job?

Not necessarily, but it is reduced by $1 for every $2 you earn above the annual exempt amount, which is $24,480 for 2026. Only wages and self-employment income count, and the reduction is applied the following year.

Is 20 years enough to retire under FERS?

Twenty years of service allows an unreduced immediate annuity beginning at age 60. At MRA with 20 years, you could retire earlier, but the benefit would be reduced unless payments begin at 60 or later.

About Damon Paull, AWMA®

Damon Paull is a Wealth Management Advisor with Cetera Investors, serving clients in Houston, TX and the Richmond/Glen Allen, VA area. He served in the United States Marine Corps, including an infantry unit and Marine Security Guard duty supporting U.S. embassies and government facilities overseas. He also spent more than five years in Afghanistan as a U.S. Department of State contractor.

He holds a BBA in Finance from the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and an associate degree in accounting from American Military University. He carries the Accredited Wealth Management Advisor (AWMA®) designation from the College for Financial Planning. He has also completed investment management coursework at the Yale School of Management and earned a Stanford Certificate of Completion in Energy Innovation and Emerging Technologies from the Stanford School of Engineering.

Outside the practice, he volunteers with the Cy-Fair Houston Chamber of Commerce and supports Scottish Rite for Children.

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This article is for educational purposes only. It is not investment, tax, or legal advice.

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Works Cited

• S. Office of Personnel Management, "FERS Eligibility." https://www.opm.gov/retirement-center/fers-information/eligibility/
• S. Office of Personnel Management, "FERS Computation." https://www.opm.gov/retirement-center/fers-information/computation/
• S. Office of Personnel Management, "FERS Service Credit." https://www.opm.gov/retirement-center/fers-information/service-credit/
• S. Office of Personnel Management, "FERS Military Retired Pay." https://www.opm.gov/retirement-center/fers-information/military-retired-pay/
• S. Office of Personnel Management, CSRS/FERS Handbook, Chapter 51, "Retiree Annuity Supplement." https://www.opm.gov/retirement-center/publications-forms/csrsfers-handbook/c051.pdf
• S. Office of Personnel Management, CSRS/FERS Handbook, Chapter 23, "Service Credit Payments for Post-1956 Military Service." https://www.opm.gov/retirement-center/publications-forms/csrsfers-handbook/c023.pdf
• S. Office of Personnel Management, FEHB Handbook, "Annuitants." https://www.opm.gov/healthcare-insurance/healthcare/reference-materials/reference/annuitants/
• Social Security Administration, "Exempt Amounts Under the Earnings Test." https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/COLA/rtea.html