Following because I just learned about VSIP from this thread.
I'm currently at 8 years in, and I'm not going to hit any retirement age calculation. I did not know about the VSIP lump sum payment for those who did not otherwise qualify for early retirement past the minimum retirement age.
The only thing I noted was that $25k sounds good, but it's 2 months of work for me. So it only makes sense to use when you're about ready to jump anyway.
I do think that VSIP payments are likely, because I believe there was an executive order about trying to accelerate the reduction of the federal work force, and this seems like a good candidate, although I'm sure they'll lead with the early retirement folks since those are typically the highest salaries.
For the annuity, as indicated above, it vests after 5 years. If you don't hit a minimum retirement age or other qualification, you get it at 62. It's (number of years employed) times (high 3 average salary) times (1%) for those folks. I don't think there's a chance that number will renegotiated for already employed workers since it's part of the compensation package. I view it as a decent supplement to social security, but definitely not something I'm going to work years longer just to increase.
For the health benefit, that does seem like a good deal, especially for those able to get full retirement at an early age. For the rest of us, though, if retirement is otherwise at 62, isn't that just bridging the gap until Medicare (assuming there's a Medicare, of course)? I realize the years 62-67 are probably costly for insurance, but I just want to make sure I understand what exactly the benefit is.