Q: I am a CSRS employee with 29 years, one month of service to date. I took the survey asking if I would consider early retirement and, if so, when. I said I would and would like to leave in December. I would be four months short of my 30 years. I have more than 600 hours of sick leave as well. What would happen to my sick leave?
A: After you met the criteria to retire, your unused hours of sick leave would be combined with any hours of actual service time that don’t add up to a full month and used to increase your total service time. You mentioned that you would be retiring four months shy of 30 years. In the initial calculation, your annuity would be 1/6 percent less for each of those four months. However, when your unused sick leave was added in, each additional month of credit would increase your annuity by 1/6 percent. For retirement purposes, 174 hours equals one month. So, if exactly 600 hours were added to your service time, your annuity would be increased by three months, with the leftover 78 hours discarded. Under this scenario, your final annuity would only be 1/6 percent less than it would have been if you had worked for a full 30 years.
