OWCP and age 65

Are your FERS or CSRS?

At age 62 or your full retirement age, which probably is 66 for you, OWCP is supposed to reduce its benefits by an amount that corresponds to the part of your Social Security that was earned while working for the Postal Service.  If you continue to receive SSDI past age 62, then the reduction in OWCP benefits will not occur until your full retirement age under Social Security.  For most people born between 1943 and 1954, their full retirement age is 66.  During the month that you reach your full retirement age, SSA no longer classifies its benefits as disability ones.  They convert to retirement ones.  If your SSA benefits are reduced for the workers' comp offset, that offset should end.  Instead, OWCP takes the offset that I just described to you.

It is only based upon that part of your SSA benefit derived from your time with the Post Office.  SSA retirement benefits are computed from SS credits earned with ALL employers.  If you only worked for the Post Office for three or four years before you got hurt, I would imagine that the offset would not be as high as it would be for someone who had worked there for 25 years.    Unless you did not work at all before you went to work for the Post Office, I would guess that you would have 25 to 30 years of a work history in the private sector and/or military service.  The SS retirement benefit earned from those SS credits will not be affected.

I am currently 57 and I have been on OWCP since 1988 and my retirement is CSRS (Dept of Defense).  My SSA credit is only 29; therefore, I wouldn't received SSA.  My doctor told me that I'll always be on OWCP with temporary total disability. 

I am sure that there are people on OWCP who are 80+ years of age.

You can receive OWCP and Social Security at the same time. However, there likely will be offsets either to Social Security or OWCP.

If you are receiving Social Security Disability Income (SSDI), then your combined benefits from OWCP and SSDI cannot exceed 80% of your pre-disability earnings. If they do, then SSA will reduce its benefits to bring it to that 80% level.

If you are receiving Social Security retirement benefits, OWCP offsets its benefits for that part of your SS retirement based upon your Federal employment. Since your SS retirement is based upon SS credits from all employers, most people will still receive something from SSA. If you are CSRS, there will not be any offset because you did not pay into SS as a Federal employee. However, CSRS-offset and FERS people should expect an offset whenever they are receiving early or regular SS retirement benefits.

BTW, SSDI converts to retirement SS at your full retirement age under Social Security.

copperpottie5- While no one ever told you about offsets while collecting benefits- I would believe that it is written in correspondence from all agencies that it is your obligation to report any other forms of income you receive while collecting benefits.  It may be in your best interest to consult an attorney who specializes in Retirement issues - just to protect yourself in the event of accusations that may have legal penalties.  Bottom line is if you were overpaid - they will want it back and I don't think your defense of nobody ever told me will make any difference in your obligation to be informed or to repay the differences...

Edited by leftylouie - 07 Jun 2010 at 6:39am