Q. I am a FERS-covered permanent part-time employee (64 hours per pay period), age 64, and will have five years of civil service employment in September. I retired from the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps with 31 years, seven months of service. It has been suggested to me that by making a Federal Employees Retirement System payment for the time over 30 years (one year and seven months), I could add that time to my length of service for my FERS annuity calculation. Is this true, and how do I go about doing that?
A. To get credit for that time, you’d have to make a deposit to the civilian retirement fund, including accrued interest, and waive your military retired pay. Your personnel office can help you find out what the basic deposit would be and your payroll office could then figure out the interest that has accumulated. You could then compare how much you’d have to pay with what you’d gain in your FERS annuity. Based on your age and service, the formula would be 0.011 multiplied by your high-three multiplied by your total years of service.
