Title 5 › Part PART III— - EMPLOYEES › Subpart Subpart G— - Insurance and Annuities › Chapter CHAPTER 84— - FEDERAL EMPLOYEES’ RETIREMENT SYSTEM › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER V— - DISABILITY BENEFITS › § 8452
An annuitant’s disability annuity starts at 60 percent of their average pay for the first 12 months after the annuity begins or is restored. After those 12 months, the annuity drops to 40 percent of average pay. During the first 12 months, the annuity is not changed for cost-of-living adjustments. After the first 12 months, the annuity is updated to reflect all cost-of-living adjustments that happened after that first year. If the person also gets Social Security disability benefits, the annuity is cut by those benefits: during the first 12 months it is reduced by 100 percent of the assumed Social Security benefit for that month, and after the first 12 months it is reduced by 60 percent of that assumed benefit. The “assumed” Social Security benefit means the amount they were entitled to when the annuity began (or first month they had both benefits), adjusted for later cost-of-living changes. When checking Social Security offset rules, use the annuity amount before this reduction. If an annuitant is getting the disability annuity the day before they turn 62, the Office must refigure the annuity starting on their 62nd birthday using the regular retirement formula. When refiguring, add the time they already had disability annuity as service time and adjust the average pay for any cost-of-living changes that applied to those periods. If the annuity starts on or after that redetermination date, or the person already meets normal retirement age and service rules when it starts, the annuity is computed under the retirement rules. The annuitant’s final annuity cannot be less than what the retirement formula would give; that retirement amount is also adjusted as if it had begun when the disability annuity started.
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Government Organization and Employees — Source: USLM XML via OLRC
Legislative History
Reference
Citation
5 U.S.C. § 8452
Title 5 — Government Organization and Employees
Last Updated
Apr 6, 2026
Release point: 119-73