Social Security for Federal Government Employees

Long-time employees of the Federal government may be confused about their Social Security benefits, and it’s easy to understand why. The U.S. government changed the retirement system for their employees in 1984, and only one of those systems include earnings for Social Security.

Prior to 1984, all employees were covered under the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS), which did not withhold Social Security taxes from workers’ earnings. As a result, these earnings do not qualify government workers for Social Security credits or benefits.

The retirement system that replaced the CSRS is the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), and under this system Social Security taxes are withheld from workers’ earnings. These earnings are included in calculating Social Security credits and benefits.

Everyone who began working for the Federal government during or after 1984 is covered under Social Security, assuming a sufficient work history to earn the required 40 credits.

Federal employees who switched to the FERS program are also covered under Social Security; all the work they performed after switching to FERS is counted toward their Social Security credits and these earnings are used to calculate benefits.

Some workers who were already covered under CSRS chose to remain under that program after FERS was available. These employees have not contributed into Social Security and are not eligible to receive benefits under the program. However, they are eligible to receiver Medicare Part A coverage after they earn the 40 quarterly credits required of all participants.

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