CSRS Offset Benefit Differences

Federal Employees that are covered by the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) Offset retirement plan and paying into it are also paying into Social Security, meaning retirement credit is being earned under both of these. When it comes to CSRS Offset, all CSRS rules apply. This includes the age and service requirements for eligibility for retirement.
You may be wondering what the difference is. When CSRS Offset employees retire, their annuity is calculated similarly (under the same rules that apply) to a worker under full CSRS. Although, when a CSRS Offset employee retires and becomes eligible for Social Security, which is generally around the age of 62, the CSRS annuity will be reduced (or “offset”) by the value of the Social Security benefit that was earned over the course of federal service after 1983 (while covered by CSRS and Social Security) by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
In most cases, the employee receives an approximate amount of the offset from Social Security when applying for benefits, meaning no loss of annuity.

There will be no offset of the CSRS annuity if a retired CSRS Offset employee does not become eligible for Social Security benefits.
After the age of 62, should the federal employee then retire and become eligible for Social Security benefits, the offset would be made at the time of retirement.