There are two ways out of federal service with an annuity, and they are governed by completely different tests. A great many employees only ever hear about one.
Regular FERS retirement: a test of age and service
Eligibility for a standard immediate annuity generally follow one of these combinations:
- Your Minimum Retirement Age with 30 years of service
- Age 60 with 20 years
- Age 62 with 5 years
- MRA with at least 10 years — the MRA+10 provision. This is generally reduced by 5% per year under 62; delaying the start can reduce or eliminate the reduction, and 20 years with an annuity beginning at 60 avoids it
The benefit is a formula: roughly 1% of your high-3 average salary for each year of creditable service, or 1.1% if you retire at 62 or later with at least 20 years.
Disability retirement: a test of medical capacity
Disability retirement has no minimum retirement age, although age affects its calculation and later rules. The requirements are different in kind:
- At least 18 months of creditable civilian service
- A medical condition expected to last at least a year that prevents useful and efficient service in your position
- Your agency cannot accommodate the condition, and no reassignment to a vacant position at the same grade or pay level in your commuting area is available
- You apply within the required window — and if you have already separated, that window is one year from separation
The governing authorities are 5 U.S.C. § 8451 and 5 CFR § 844.103.
Why the distinction matters so much
Consider an employee at 48 with 19 years of service whose condition has made the job impossible. Under regular retirement rules they are years away from any immediate annuity, and their only route is resigning with a deferred benefit that starts much later.
Under disability retirement, age is not part of the question. What matters is whether the medical evidence establishes the incompatibility between their condition and their duties.
That is a genuinely different outcome for the same person on the same day, and employees make permanent decisions without knowing the second door exists.
The point people miss
Disability retirement is not a lesser or emergency version of regular retirement. It is a separate benefit with its own statutory basis, its own computation, and its own rules once you are receiving it — including earnings limits that apply while you are under 60.
If you are weighing whether to push through to a normal retirement age or whether your health makes that unrealistic, understanding both doors before you choose one is the entire ballgame.
General education, not legal or financial advice. Eligibility determinations are made solely by OPM.