Q. I joined the Navy on Sept. 1, 1988. I joined the federal government (FERS) in December 1997. I was on terminal leave from the active-duty Navy for an overlapping 80 days (until March 1998). I paid my deposit for the military time. My agency wouldn’t change my service computation date back to June 1988. I argued that I paid a deposit for all of my time and should be “dual credited for those 80 days.” My case went to the Office of Personnel Management for a ruling, and I won. My SCD was changed to June 19, 1988. In August 2007, I joined the Defense Department (FERS Title 5). They changed my SCD back to September 1988, even though I had an SF-50 explaining everything. I made the same argument and they simply said, “That’s not how we do it in the DOD.” So I’ve read the rule covered in FERS handbook 22a6.1-4, but I can’t make heads or tails out of it. In your expert opinion, how should dual creditable time affect SCD?
A. If you are saying that you became employed by the federal government while you were on terminal leave, then the day you were hired became your SCD. When you made a deposit for your active-duty service, that time, minus the days when you were already an employee, would be used to reset your SCD. You can’t get credit twice for the same time period.
