MRA+10 lets you leave federal service as soon as you hit your Minimum Retirement Age with 10 years of service — but your pension is permanently reduced 5% for every year you're under 62. Here's when it makes sense and when deferral is the smarter move.
The standard FERS retirement equations — MRA+30, 60+20, 62+5 — are well known. Less discussed is the MRA+10 provision, a backdoor exit for employees who want to leave federal service before they qualify for full retirement. It comes with a real cost that many people underestimate until they run the numbers.
MRA+10 lets you retire with an immediate, reduced pension as soon as you reach your Minimum Retirement Age (56 or 57 for most employees born after 1964) with at least 10 years of creditable service.
The trade-off: your pension is reduced by 5% for every year you are under age 62 at retirement.
| Age at retirement | Reduction | Example: $24,000/year pension |
|---|---|---|
| 57 (MRA) | 25% (5 years × 5%) | $18,000/year |
| 58 | 20% | $19,200/year |
| 59 | 15% | $20,400/year |
| 60 | 10% | $21,600/year |
| 61 | 5% | $22,800/year |
| 62+ | 0% | $24,000/year |
For someone with a modest pension, losing 25% is significant. On a $24,000 annual pension, a 25% reduction is $6,000/year less — for the rest of your life. That adds up.
Here's the part that catches employees off guard: MRA+10 retirees do not receive the FERS Supplement. That bridge payment between federal retirement and Social Security eligibility at 62 — which can be worth $1,000+ per month for many employees — is only available to those who retire with full (unreduced) eligibility.
So instead of a pension plus supplement, an MRA+10 retiree gets a reduced pension only, until Social Security eligibility at 62.
Federal employees who retire under MRA+10 can continue their Federal Employees Health Benefits coverage, but only if they have met the 5-year FEHB enrollment rule. This is the same rule that applies to all federal retirees: continuous FEHB enrollment for the 5 years immediately preceding retirement.
If you leave federal service at your MRA but aren't ready to accept the reduction, you have another option: defer your pension. You leave the federal workforce, and your pension sits waiting until you choose to claim it. You can claim as early as MRA+10 (with the same reduction) or wait until:
The trade-off: during the deferral period, you are not enrolled in FEHB. You'd need to find health coverage through a spouse's plan, COBRA (for up to 18 months), the ACA marketplace, or a new employer.
If you have other health coverage lined up and are willing to wait, deferral can recover most or all of the pension reduction.
Despite the reduction, MRA+10 can be the right choice in specific situations:
The real comparison for any MRA+10 decision isn't just the monthly check — it's the lifetime cumulative total versus waiting. Consider an employee eligible to retire at 57 on MRA+10 versus waiting until 62 for full retirement:
In this example, waiting wins by $60,000 over a 30-year retirement. But that calculation ignores the 5 years of income you give up by waiting, the time value of money, FERS Supplement eligibility, and what you'd actually be doing from 57–62. The real answer depends on your complete financial picture.
High-3 Retirement Planner's retirement scenario engine lets you compare MRA+10, full retirement, and deferred retirement side by side — with pension amounts, FERS Supplement eligibility, and cumulative totals shown for each. No spreadsheet required.
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