When leaving federal service, the distinction between deferred and postponed retirement depends on whether you already qualify for an immediate MRA+10 annuity. They sound interchangeable. They are not.
Deferred retirement
You left with at least five years of creditable civilian service without entitlement to an immediate annuity. Leaving before MRA is one common example. You can collect an annuity later, at the applicable age.
What you lose:
- FEHB does not restart with this deferred annuity. Federal health coverage does not resume when the annuity begins.
- FEGLI does not restart with this deferred annuity. Same.
- Unused sick leave credit. It is generally forfeited rather than carried into the deferred computation.
Postponed retirement
You retired under the MRA+10 provision — your Minimum Retirement Age with at least 10 but fewer than 30 years — and chose to delay the annuity start date rather than take it immediately.
Why anyone would: MRA+10 carries a permanent reduction of 5% for each year you are under 62. Postponing the start date reduces or eliminates that reduction.
What you keep: you can generally reinstate FEHB and FEGLI when the annuity begins, provided you met the eligibility requirements when you separated.
The same exit, different paperwork
Two employees can walk out of the same building in the same month and end up in entirely different positions, because one qualified for MRA+10 and postponed while the other did not and deferred.
The difference is not a formality. Losing FEHB permanently versus reinstating it later can be the single largest financial consequence of how you leave.
Where this intersects with disability retirement
This is worth naming, because it is a live decision for people whose health is failing.
An employee who cannot continue working sometimes resigns and takes a deferred retirement because it feels like the simplest path. If they would have qualified for disability retirement, that choice may have cost them an immediate annuity, their health insurance, and their sick leave credit — all at once.
Disability retirement has its own filing deadline, and if you have already separated, that window is one year from the date of separation.
Before you leave
Find out which category you would fall into, what happens to your insurance in each, and whether a different exit route is available. Ask your servicing HR office in writing so you have the answer on record.
General education, not benefits counseling. Confirm your specific eligibility with OPM and your servicing HR office.