Q: I am contemplating retiring on Dec. 31, 2011. My SCD is Jan. 18, 1982 with a transfer date of Dec. 20, 1988. At the time of transfer I had 480 hours of sick leave. On Dec. 31, 2011, I could have 1,610 hours of sick leave. With this data, I have five yrs, 11 months, two days of CSRS credit with 2 months and 23 days of CSRS sick leave credit. I have 24 years and 12 days of FERS service time. The 1,610-480 = 1,130 hours of FERS time would be halved and give me a FERS sick leave credit of three months and eight days. I was given the impression that the “extra” 25 days of lost CSRS sick leave would be moved to the FERS side, halved and then added to the FERS sick leave credit. So in fact, I can get an additional month of FERS credit by adding the 12 days of FERS time + eight days of FERS sick leave credit + 12 days of “extra” CSRS sick leave credit. Our HR retirement calculator drops the 25 CSRS days. Is my calculation correct or do I just lose the 25 days of CSRS sick leave credit (and one month of FERS service time credit) as our HR calculator describes?
A: Yes, you lose that sick leave. Any hours that don’t add up to a month are dropped. As a result, you could end up losing hours of sick leave in both your CSRS and FERS annuity computations.
