Benefits Newsletter: May, 2023

If you are getting married or divorced, or if you are having or adopting a child, those are qualifying life events (QLE) that will allow you to make certain changes to your benefits.   View the timeline and process on the Retirement & Employee Benefits Branch’s

When was the last time you checked your beneficiary designations?  There are four beneficiary forms to keep current.

Your eligibility to retire depends upon your age, years of creditable service, and the retirement system under which you are covered.   For information on the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS and CSRS-Offset), see the CSRS information page.  For information on the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS, FERS-RAE and FERS-FRAE), see the FERS information page. 

If you wish to make a change to your Federal tax withholding, you must make your change in myPay.  The Federal Tax Withholding page in myPay was recently updated to mirror the newly revised W-4 Federal Tax Form.  You can view the W-4 Tax form instructions on the IRS website to help you in responding to the question

Temporary Continuation of Coverage (TCC) is available to: 1) employees who lose their FEHB Program coverage because they leave their Federal jobs; 2) children who lose their FEHB Program family member status because they reach age 26; and 3) former spouses who lose their FEHB Program family member status because of divorce or annulment.

The Spouse Equity provisions of law allows the former spouse of a Federal employee or annuitant to enroll in The Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program if he or she: 1) was covered under FEHB as a family member at some time during the 18 months before the marriage ended; 2) has not remarried before reaching age 55; and 3) has a qualifying court order (a court order that awards the former spouse a portion of the employee's or retiree's annuity benefit or a survivor benefit based on the

The Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) is a retirement savings and investment plan for Federal employees and members of the uniformed services.  If you are covered under the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS, FERS-RAE, and FERS-FRAE), contributing to the TSP is extremely important, as the TSP will be a very large part of your retirement income.  To learn about the importance of contributing to the TSP, take a few minutes to view the following short, informative videos:

If you are covered by the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) or CSRS-Offset, your spouse is entitled to a survivor annuity provided you have at least 18 months of civilian service and you were married for at least 9 months. The 9-month requirement does not apply if your death is accidental or if there is a child born of the marriage. Generally, your spouse is entitled to 55% of your earned annuity based on your length of service and high-three salary at