The re-Social Security Benefit (SSB) ends when you are eligible to receive full benefits from Social Security, regardless of when you actually choose to apply for Social Security benefits.
For information on when you are eligible to receive Social Security benefits, go to the Social Security Administration website at this link.
Social Security benefits do not affect your county benefit. Your Fairfax County retirement benefits will not change when you begin to receive Social Security.
Annual leave payout is from the County's Human Resources Department and is usually paid 2 weeks after your final paycheck.
Benefit payments are made by direct deposit on the last business day of every month. Depending upon when your last day of work is, it might be over a month before you receive your first retiree benefit payment. But, regardless, you will be paid effective the day after your last day working.
There are several reasons that your first check might be different:
- You may be subject to a double deduction for insurance.
- There may be DROP interest included.
- You may receive income for the partial month in which you retired.
Your retirement counselor will have provided you with an estimate of your retirement during your retirement counseling session. Your actual benefit may be slightly different, but it should be very close to what your monthly retirement benefit will be.
You can access your pay advice online.
Yes we can, but it is different for everyone. So please call one of our Retiree Payroll Specialists, who can help you.. Click here for their contact information.
Your pay advice is automatically uploaded to your account in Web Member Services (also called MyRetirement).
We actually mail pay advices three times a year:
- January, so that you can see any changes in your health benefit deductions from the previous fall's open enrollment.
- July, so that you can your updated pay reflecting the cost of living adjustment (COLA).
- December, for your tax planning purposes
The calculation of the retiree COLA is dictated in County Code It is based on the annual increase in Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) for the Washington area over the 12 months ending March 31.
For more information on this year's COLA, click here.
No. You can leave it in the system where it will earn interest for 5 years and then become dormant. If you leave your money in the system and return to county employment, your contributions and years of service pick up where you left off.
Complete the Acknowledgement of Employment Termination form. If you refund/rollover your account balance, you lose your years of service. You may be eligible to “buy-back” previous eligible service credit with interest.
Contact HR.
Contact HR.
Complete the form, but keep in mind that you may not have an account balance if your contributions have already been paid back to you.
This option is irrevocable for PORS. For URS and ERS, you need a court order with specific wording. Please contact Retiree Services and request QDRO Guidelines.
Complete the Authorization for Direct Deposit form.
Complete the Change of Address form.
Complete the Payroll Deduction form.
Please consult with a tax professional to help you.
No. Contact your state revenue office to see if you need to make estimated quarterly payments.
Click here for more information on the 1099R.
If you need to enroll or make changes to your health or dental insurance, please contact Human Resources at 703-324-3311 or go to https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/hr/ to make these changes.
Active employees and their covered spouses who are age 65 are not required to apply for Medicare while they are covered by the county’s health plan. Medicare is secondary insurance and pays claims after the county’s health plan. Typically, there is nothing left for Medicare to pay since the county’s health plan paid what Medicare would have paid. Medicare has a special open enrollment period that allows new retirees to elect Medicare without penalty when they retire.
Retirees who are covered by the county’s retiree health coverage, however, are required to apply for and maintain Medicare Parts A and B when they become eligible. They should contact the Social Security Administration three months before they become eligible so they receive their Medicare cards by their effective date. Once retirees send a copy of that card to the DHR-Benefits Division, they will become eligible for lower premiums as the doctors will file claims to Medicare first. Retirees will continue to pay the normal co-payments and co-insurance. If a copy of the Medicare Card is not submitted by the eligibility date your coverage will be cancelled. As a retiree, once your coverage is cancelled it cannot be reinstated.
Fairfax County Government has determined that the prescription drug coverage offered by the Cigna and Kaiser are, on average for all plan participants, expected to pay out as much as standard Medicare prescription drug coverage pays and is therefore considered Creditable Coverage. Because your existing coverage is Creditable Coverage, you can keep this coverage and not pay a higher premium (a penalty) if you later decide to join a Medicare drug plan.
To learn more about your health benefit information rights, click on this link.
Retirement annuity payments are direct deposited into your bank account with the financial institution of your choice on a monthly basis, on the last business day of each month. Your “Retirement Application Packet” will include information on Direct Deposit and the forms you need to complete to get Direct Deposit started. Information on each monthly annuity payment will be available for you to review online through the Retirement System’s secure web portal, Web Member Services (WMS).
For an explanation of what your retirement pay statement will look like, visit this link.
The following deductions are processed as part of your monthly pay:
- Federal taxes (based on the number of exemptions you claimed on your W4P form)
- Virginia State taxes (we are not able to deduct for other States' taxes that you may owe)
- Health insurance premiums (if you have County health insurance)
- Dental insurance premiums
Click on this link for instructions on how to set up a web member services (or MyRetirement) account.
Once you have established your account following the directions linked to above, log in to WMS and you will see the link for fairfaxNET towards the bottom of the left navigation bar under "Other". See page 2 of the directions for how to Establish an Account for a print screen view showing the location of fairfaxNET.
Fairfax County Public Schools has this information available on their website, at this address.