FERS early retirement in 2026: VERA, discontinued service and what the annuity pays
An early-out lets you leave with an immediate annuity years before your MRA. Turn on the early-out option in the calculator, then set your age and service.
Early retirement annuity, from age 52
$2,125/mo
$25,500 a year, plus $1,187/mo of supplement from age 57 (your MRA) until 62.
| Basic annuity (25 years, 6 months counted) | $25,500 |
| FERS supplement until 62 | $1,187/mo |
| Your MRA | 57 |
Early retirement (VERA or discontinued service): age 50 with 20 years, or 25 years · 1 %.
Prepared by Radif Partners · How the figures are built · read on opm.gov, ecfr.gov and ssa.gov · not an official determination
FERS early retirement covers two cases written in 5 U.S.C. 8414(b): voluntary early retirement (VERA), offered when OPM approves a request from an agency that is restructuring or cutting staff, and discontinued service retirement (DSR), when you are separated involuntarily and not for cause. In both you need age 50 with 20 years of service, or 25 years at any age. The annuity starts right away, uses the 1 % multiplier and carries no age reduction: the 5 % a year cut of MRA+10 does not apply to section 8414. Someone born in 1972 who accepts an offer at 52 with 25 years and a $100,000 high-3 receives $25,000 a year before any survivor election. The FERS supplement, $1,187 a month with a $1,900 Social Security estimate, starts only at the MRA of 57, and the annuity gets no COLA before 62. Without the offer, the same worker could only leave with a deferred annuity.
Two doors into the same annuity
Section 8414(b) of title 5 groups two situations under one rule. The first is the discontinued service retirement: your agency separates you involuntarily, for a reason other than misconduct or delinquency, typically in a reduction in force. The second is the voluntary early retirement authority, or VERA: an agency undergoing substantial delayering, reorganization, reductions in force, transfer of function or other restructuring asks OPM for the authority, and employees inside the scope of the offer may choose to leave.
In both cases the age and service test is the same: 50 years of age with 20 years of creditable service, or 25 years of service at any age. Employees under the special provisions for law enforcement officers, firefighters and air traffic controllers do not use section 8414(b); they already have their own early retirement ages.
Conditions of a VERA offer
The statute lists them. You must have been employed by the agency continuously for at least 31 days before the date of its request to OPM. Your appointment must not be time limited. You must not have been notified that you are to be separated for misconduct or unacceptable performance. Your position must fall within the scope the agency set for the offer, which can be drawn by organizational unit, occupational series or grade, geographic location, period, skills or any combination of these. The agency sets a window; outside it, the authority does not exist.
Conditions of a discontinued service retirement
The separation must be involuntary and not for cause. Section 8414(b)(2) adds a limit: you lose the annuity if you decline a reasonable offer of another position in your agency, for which you are qualified, not lower than two grades or pay levels below your own and within your commuting area. A job offered three grades lower, or in another city, does not count as reasonable under that test.
How the annuity is computed
An early-out annuity uses the regular formula of section 8415: high-3 times years of service times 1 %. Unused sick leave is added to the years, because this is an immediate annuity. The age reduction of section 8415(h), five-twelfths of 1 % for each month under 62, is written for MRA+10 retirements under section 8412(g) and deferred annuities under section 8413(b). It does not mention section 8414, so an early-out annuity at 47 or 52 is paid in full.
| Situation (born 1972) | Annuity per year | Supplement from the MRA | Rule |
|---|---|---|---|
| VERA at 47 with 25 years | $25,000 | $1,187/mo | 25 years, any age |
| VERA at 50 with 20 years | $20,000 | $950/mo | 50 with 20 |
| VERA at 52 with 25 years | $25,000 | $1,187/mo | 25 years, any age |
| Staying to the MRA (57) with 30 years | $30,000 | $1,425/mo | MRA with 30 |
Your early-out annuity
Early retirement annuity, from age 52
$2,125/mo
| Basic annuity (25 years, 6 months counted) | $25,500 |
| FERS supplement until 62 | $1,187/mo |
| Your MRA | 57 |
The calculator card shows the supplement amount you will receive; remember that payments of it begin at your MRA, not at separation. The basic annuity starts the month after you leave.
The supplement and the COLA wait
Two parts of the package arrive later. The FERS supplement is paid to early-out retirees only from the MRA to 62. For the worker in the table who leaves at 52, that means five years with the annuity alone, then about 5 years with the supplement on top. The FERS COLA follows the age 62 rule of section 8462, which names section 8414 among the annuities that get no increase before 62. From 52 to 62, the $25,000 stays flat in dollars.
What the offer is worth
Without the offer, the employee in the example has two paths. Resigning at 52 with 25 years is not a retirement at all: it gives a deferred annuity that can start at the MRA with a reduction or at 60 without one, with no supplement and no sick leave credit. The calculator shows it as a deferred annuity. Staying to the MRA with 30 years gives $30,000 a year and the supplement at once. The early out sits between the two: income from the first month, a lower annuity for life, and retiree health coverage if you meet the FEHB rule below.
Health insurance and the five-year rule
An early-out retirement is an immediate annuity, so you can keep FEHB coverage into retirement if you meet the usual condition: continuous enrollment, as an enrollee or a covered family member, for the five years of service before the annuity starts, or since your first opportunity to enroll if that is shorter. The rule is set out on OPM's FEHB page for annuitants. An employee who joined FEHB only two years before the offer should check it before accepting.
Before you accept
Ask Human Resources for a written annuity estimate based on your SF-50, your service computation date and your sick leave balance, and check the window dates of the offer. Compare the early-out figure with the one for staying to your MRA in the FERS retirement calculator. A survivor election reduces the annuity by 10 % for a full benefit or 5 % for a partial one, the same as in any other retirement.