Annuity Beginning and Ending Dates

What it does

The Railroad Retirement Board amends its regulations to remove limitations on the beginning date of an employee annuity under the Railroad Retirement Act based on attaining age 60 with 30 years of railroad service. As currently written, the regulation requires a claimant to accept a reduced monthly benefit in order to begin the annuity on the first day of the first full month in which the claimant attains age 60. This requirement is no longer consistent with the statutory criteria in the Railroad Retirement Act for the earliest annuity beginning date permitted by law and is therefore facially unlawful.

The Railroad Retirement Board's summary, as published in the Federal Register.

What changed in the regulation

1 part of Title 20 of the Code of Federal Regulations:

20 CFR 218

Wording on eCFR: the day before it took effect and from the day it took effect (first part listed).

Compared with

The Railroad Retirement Board has published 4 final rules in 2026 so far, compared with 4 in all of 2025.

Counted by the Tribune from Federal Register records since Jan. 1, 2025.

Before this

No earlier Federal Register document under regulation identifier 3220-AB81 since Jan. 1, 2025.

What happens next and when

This rule is effective June 22, 2026.

The agency's dates, word for word.

Check it yourself

• The document in the Federal Register
• Title 20 on eCFR

The record as published

Source: the Federal Register (public domain). The document in the Federal Register