Q. I have returned to federal service and want to redeposit my FERS contributions that were returned to me. Neither the Office of Personnel Management nor the Air Force Personnel Center can tell me whether the nine years of military time I bought back while I was previously a federal worker was returned along with the FERS contributions. Now that I have returned to federal service, the nine years of military service is not showing as credible time so I was hoping one of the experts here could shed some light on this for me. Would the bought-back military time be returned to me as part of the FERS return? If not, shouldn’t I be allowed to re-buy my military time back?
A. When you left government and asked for a refund, you received both your retirement contributions and the deposit you made to get credit for your active-duty military service. Now that you have returned to work for the government, you can redeposit your retirement contributions and once more make a deposit to get credit for your active-duty service.
