Q. I have a few years to go but have been looking at my retirement options. I started working for the Veterans Affairs Department in 1992, then joined the Army under the Military Employment/Reemployment Rights Act in 1995. I returned to VA in January 2000. At that time, I bought back my military time.
Now I’m looking at my qualifications for the special retirement supplement. I can find numerous examples of people that were in the military prior to their federal job. It appears that the time can count for their FERS retirement, but not for the supplement.
Since my situation is a bit different, will my military time count toward the supplement? It’s never too early to plan, and those four years could make a big difference to my retirement date.
A. The special retirement supplement is paid out of the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund and is based solely on actual FERS service. Therefore, any active-duty service for which you’ve made a deposit won’t be used in that computation.
2 Comments
I was looking at the FERS Handbook, Chapter 51. A note at the bottom of Page 13 implies that the military time in this case would count for the supplement. Am I incorrect?
Yes.