FERS Supplement in 2026: Who Gets It, How It's Computed, and the $24,480 Earnings Test
The FERS annuity supplement (OPM also calls it the special retirement supplement) is a monthly payment that stands in for the Social Security benefit a federal retiree has not yet reached the age to collect. It is paid on top of the basic annuity, it ends at 62, and quick retirement estimates often leave it out. Whether you get it, how much, and whether work income shrinks it all follow fixed rules in Chapter 51 of OPM's CSRS/FERS Handbook, so each can be worked out by hand. This guide does that, using OPM's own example and the 2026 earnings figure.
Who is eligible
The supplement goes with the type of retirement, not with a request you make. Under OPM's types of retirement page and Chapter 51 of the handbook:
- Immediate unreduced retirement: the supplement is paid from retirement if your annuity is unreduced and you are under 62. That covers retiring at your minimum retirement age (MRA) with 30 years of service, and at 60 with 20 years.
- Special-provision retirement (law enforcement officers, firefighters, CBP officers, nuclear materials couriers, air traffic controllers and military reserve technicians): paid from retirement, and exempt from the earnings test until the MRA.
- Early retirement (VERA or a discontinued service retirement): paid starting at your MRA, not from the day you retire.
- Not paid: MRA+10 retirements, whether reduced or postponed (see the MRA+10 guide); deferred retirements; disability retirements; and anyone retiring at 62 or older, since the supplement exists to bridge the years before 62. A retirement at 62 with 5 years of service is unreduced, but it carries no supplement.
Every case also needs at least one full calendar year (January 1 through December 31) of civilian service under FERS; a CSRS transferee who retires within the first year after transferring gets nothing. CSRS retirees do not receive it at all. It is a FERS benefit. If you are between the lines (for example, 60 with 19 years 11 months), the eligibility date for the 20-year test is the one that decides it, and a single month of service can decide whether any supplement is paid at all.
How the amount is computed
The formula in Chapter 51 (Part 51A2, "Amount of Retiree Annuity Supplement") is short:
Supplement per month = your estimated Social Security benefit at 62, times your FERS civilian service in years (rounded to the nearest whole year, at most 40), divided by 40.
Three details matter:
- Which Social Security number. OPM uses the benefit you would be entitled to at 62 based on your earnings record. High Three, like most calculators, takes the figure from your Social Security statement as the published approximation. OPM's own method rebuilds an earnings history, so your agency's figure can differ by a small amount.
- Which service counts. Civilian FERS service only. Bought-back military time and unused sick leave are excluded, even though sick leave increases the basic annuity.
- How the years round. The service is rounded to the nearest whole year (the handbook and 5 CFR 842.504 say "nearest whole number" and no more). High Three rounds six months up, the way OPM rounds the similar CSRS Offset fraction, so 29 years 6 months counts as 30 and 29 years 5 months counts as 29; if your count lands on exactly six months, ask HR how OPM will treat it. The result is rounded down to the whole dollar.
OPM's handbook works an example. A retiree whose Social Security estimate at 62 is $2,112 a month, with 33 years of FERS civilian service, gets $2,112 x 33 / 40 = $1,742.40, which is $1,742 a month after rounding down. Over a year that is $20,904. At the extremes, 40 years of service pays the full Social Security estimate, and 20 years pays half of it.
When it stops
The supplement ends on the earlier of two dates (5 U.S.C. 8421(a)(3) and handbook section 51A1.1-3E): the last day of the month in which you become 62, or the last day of the month before the first month you could draw Social Security retirement benefits. Two conventions move the date for people born early in a month. OPM treats you as reaching an age on the day before your birthday, and Social Security pays for the first month you are 62 throughout. The handbook's two examples show the effect: Mary, born September 1, becomes 62 on August 31, so her supplement ends August 31. Sam, born September 2, becomes 62 on September 1, so September is his first full month at 62 and Social Security could start then; his supplement therefore also ends August 31 (the handbook adds that if he were not entitled to Social Security it would run to September 30). For a birthday on the third or later, the supplement runs through the end of your birth month. If your birthday is the first or second of a month, expect the final payment a month earlier than you might assume.
The earnings test
If you work after retiring, the supplement is subject to a test that mirrors the Social Security earnings test. For 2026 the exempt amount is $24,480. Earnings above it reduce the annual supplement by $1 for every $2 over, and the reduction can never exceed the supplement. In symbols, for the year:
Reduction = (earnings less $24,480) / 2, but not more than the year's supplement.
Earnings here means what the Social Security earnings test counts (5 U.S.C. 8421a(b)): wages for services performed in the year plus net earnings from self-employment, less any self-employment loss. Your annuity, TSP withdrawals, and investment income are not earnings for the test. Three practical points. Only earnings for the months you were entitled to the supplement count, so pay from before your retirement date in the year you retire is left out. OPM applies the test after the year ends, using the earnings you report on its annual survey (form RI 92-22), and the reduction runs for the 12 months starting the following July rather than arriving as a surprise paycheck cut. And special-provision retirees are exempt until they reach their MRA.
For a supplement of $14,400 a year ($1,200 a month), the 2026 test works out as follows:
| Earnings for the year | Over the exempt amount | Reduction (half of that) | Supplement left |
|---|---|---|---|
| $24,480 | $0 | $0 | $14,400 |
| $30,000 | $5,520 | $2,760 | $11,640 |
| $34,480 | $10,000 | $5,000 | $9,400 |
| $44,480 | $20,000 | $10,000 | $4,400 |
| $53,280 | $28,800 | $14,400 | $0 |
| $60,000 | $35,520 | $14,400 (capped at the supplement) | $0 |
The two ends of the table are the useful ones. At $24,480 or below nothing happens. Above $53,280 the whole $14,400 is gone, so extra income past that point costs nothing more. The rows between are the same arithmetic at round-number intervals: $10,000 over the limit costs $5,000 and leaves $9,400.
A note on timing for your own plan
Because the supplement ends at 62 and the earnings test only matters in the years you receive it, the test is a limited-window issue. Someone who retires at the MRA with 30 years and takes a part-time job for a few years can see the supplement shrink for exactly those years; the same job after 62 has no effect on the FERS annuity. This guide does not recommend a date or a job. What it gives you is the arithmetic, so you can put your own earnings in the table above and see the result before the year starts rather than after.
Another thing the formula shows is how sensitive the amount is to the service rounding. At a Social Security estimate of $2,000 a month, 29 years 5 months pays $1,450 and 29 years 6 months pays $1,500: one month of service moves the supplement by $50 a month, because the rounding lifts the count from 29 to 30 years. The nearest-year rounding is OPM's rule; rounding a half year up is how High Three applies it, as explained above.
What the calculator on this page does and does not do
The free calculator on the home page gives the gross basic annuity and tells you the retirement type, but it does not compute the supplement; that needs your Social Security estimate, your earnings and the year-by-year schedule. The High Three app computes the supplement with the earnings test, shows when it ends, and combines it with the annuity, survivor election and COLA in a timeline to age 95.
Citations: Chapter 51, Retiree Annuity Supplement, in OPM's CSRS/FERS Handbook; OPM's types of retirement page; 5 U.S.C. 8421 and 8421a; the Social Security Administration's 2026 exempt amount. Confirm your own figures with your agency's HR office or OPM before relying on them.
More guides
- MRA+10 Retirement: How the 5% Per Year Reduction Really Works (Full Months, Postponing, the 20-Years-at-60 Exception)
- The 2,087-Hour Sick Leave Chart: What Your Balance Adds to Your Annuity
- What Counts in Your High-3 (and What Doesn't)
- FERS vs CSRS: The Formulas Side by Side (1%/1.1% vs 1.5/1.75/2%, the 80% Cap, Special Provisions)