“The federal government, on average, hires people who are 35 years of age.”
Yes, but you fail to acknowledge that a large percentage of those have other “government” experience by being military veterans and they are allowed to count those years towards their government tenure. So, again, there are MANY who can retire at 56 years of age.
I know of many military veterans who simply “quit” the Marine Corps (let their enlistment run out) and then came back to work doing the EXACT SAME JOB on the following Monday, and were entitled to higher pay and benefits and could fully retire with only five (5) more years of “government” service.
More importantly, the article reads, “...still collect full pension...” It never said that he would receive 100% of his pay. It says collect full pension, which means ALL which they are entitled to, without regards to any other income. Whereas, if you or I retire using SSA, we MUST limit our other income to ensure we do not LOOSE additional monies from SSA.
It is even WORSE for military retirees. They have to PAY for their own medical disabilities out of their retirement. If you are entitled to $80K a year in retirement money, and then you get a 10% disability as well, you don’t get $88K a year. You get $72K in retirement pay, and $8K in tax-free disability pay. You basically have to pay for your own disability! It is ridiculous!!!
You only need 5 years service to retire at 56. That doesn’t give you an enormous “full pension”.
Former military members DO NOT get their military time counted toward their federal employee retirement unless they pay into the system. They must pay 3% of their total base pay for their military time into the FERS system in order to receive retirement credit for it.