Policy and Systems

Part II - Work and Earnings

How Work and Earnings Can Affect Employees Initially Awarded Disability Annuities

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Chapter 4 - What Happens to My Disability Annuity When I Attain Full Retirement Age?

Your disability annuity will end the last day of the month before the month in which you attain full retirement age (FRA). This will happen automatically and there is no action you need to take for this to occur. The law provides that upon your attainment of FRA and the termination of your entitlement to a disability annuity, you are deemed to have filed an application for an age and service annuity. Your disability annuity will automatically be converted to an annuity based on age and service and your benefit payments will continue.

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Eligibility Requirements for a Period of Disability ("Disability Freeze")

To receive a period of disability, you must meet three requirements:

A disability requirement, and;
an earnings requirement, and;
a waiting period requirement for early Medicare.

A. Disability Requirement Defined

To meet this requirement, you must either:

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How A Period Of Disability ("Disability Freeze") Can Help You

A period of disability protects your earnings record so that the time you are severely disabled will not count against you or your surviving dependents when the amount of monthly benefits is computed.

Although the period of disability is not a monthly cash benefit in itself, it provides that all or part of the entire Tier I portion of your annuity will be taxed in the same manner as a social security benefit. It also may provide the following:

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Events That Can Affect Your Disability Benefits

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Applying for Early Medicare Coverage

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About Your Period of Disability ("Disability Freeze")

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Chapter 3 - What Happens to My Disability Annuity When I Meet the Requirements for an Age and Service Annuity?

An individual's attainment of age 60 with 30 years of service does not have any impact on the disability annuity to which the individual is entitled; nor does it impact the disability earnings restrictions. This is true even though the individual would have otherwise qualified for a full age annuity under the Railroad Retirement Act (RRA) based on being at least age 60 with 30 years of service.

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Chapter 2 - What is My Full Retirement Age?

An individual's full retirement age (FRA) is the earliest age at which a person can begin receiving non- disability social security benefits without any reduction for early retirement. FRA ranges from age 65 to age 67, depending upon the individual's year of birth. To determine your FRA, simply locate your year of birth in the chart below.

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Chapter 1 - When Does a Disability Annuity End?

Once an employee has been awarded a disability annuity under the Railroad Retirement Act (RRA), that individual is required to meet all disability earnings tests and is subject to continuing disability reviews until the disability annuity ends. An employee annuity based on disability ends with the earliest of the following:

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