The Social Security Administration once again will offer early retirement incentives to eligible employees this year as part of an ongoing effort to right-size its workforce, the agency announced Friday.

Employees who at least 50 years old with 20 years of federal service, or any employee with at least 25 years in federal government, are eligible to take advantage of SSA’s Voluntary Early Retirement Authority. SSA expects about 200 workers to accept the offer, said Kia Anderson, an agency spokeswoman. They have until May 9 to accept the offer and must separate from the agency by July 31.

“Our agency is continuing its multi-year effort to reshape its workforce to better serve the needs of the American people,” Anderson said. “This action is required to respond to changing demographic, geographic and programmatic factors affecting the agency’s service population.”

SSA has endured a number of cuts to its workforce in recent years; in 2011 the agency reduced its staff by 6 percent. In 2012, SSA offered early retirement to about 9,000 employees.

VERA “enables us to reduce the number of positions in locations with lessening demand, redirect allocations from staff positions to direct service positions and increase our workforce in growing communities without creating major organizational upheavals or forcing employee reassignments, relocations or separations,” Anderson said.

SSA has about 62,000 employees and is one of the largest agencies in the federal government.

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