Q. I am a CSRS employee with more than 41 years and four month of service (computation date April 1971) so will most likely be maxed out by March.
I was thinking of retiring Jan. 3 to take advantage of a lump-sum payout of my unused annual leave. Thing is, I also have about 3,500 hours of sick leave. Since I won’t need to use the sick leave to hit my maximum 80 percent, what happens to it? Since it will add an additional one year to my length of service, would my annuity increase above the 80 percent?
A. Relax. Unused sick leave isn’t subject to the 80 percent limit. When you retire, that unused sick leave will be added to your actual service. Since 174 hours roughly equals one month and 2,087 equals one year, you can estimate how much your 3,500 hours would increase you annuity.
