2023 COLA for the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS)
More than 2.6 million people received annual public service payments, both employees and survivors, in 2018 according to government figures. More than two-thirds of them received benefits earned under CSRS and their monthly payments will increase by 8.7 percent when the first ones are issued in January 2023.
Meanwhile, the remaining third will get the 2023 COLA for FERS, which will be 7.7 percent. Those in FERS are newer government employees who began having their retirement covered by the new program on January 1, 1987.
The slightly smaller increase in your annuity payments is due to how FERS was set up when Congress created the pension plan in 1986. The retirement plan provides benefits from three different sources: a Basic Benefit Plan, Social Security and the Savings Plan.