Are age reductions applied to employee disability annuities?
Employee annuities based on disability are not subject to age reductions except for employees with less than 10 years of service, but who have 5 years of service after 1995. Such employees may qualify for a tier I benefit before retirement age based on total and permanent disability, but only if they have a disability insured status (also called a “disability freeze”) under Social Security Act rules, counting both railroad retirement and social security-covered earnings. Unlike with a 10-year employee, a tier II benefit is not payable in these disability cases until the employee attains age 62. And, the employee’s tier II benefit will be reduced for early retirement in the same manner as the tier II benefit of an employee who retired at age 62 with less than 30 years of service. 8. Do these changes also affect survivor benefits? Yes. The eligibility age for a full widow(er)’s annuity is also gradually rising from age 65 for those born before 1940 to age 67 for those born in 1962 or lat
