Q. When I was hired into civil service on May 8, 1989, human resources calculated my service computation date as Aug. 6, 1971, based upon some military time. (I was in the Air Force, serving from Dec. 3, 1969, until Sept. 4, 1987, receiving an honorable discharge.) Now that I am approaching FERS retirement, I need to accurately calculate an accurate service time.
My current salary (high-3) is approximately $89,450. I know that FERS retirement benefits are only one part (of three) that I will be eligible for — the others being Social Security and the Thrift Savings Plan, but those are much more straightforward to calculate.
A. While you got credit for that active-duty service in determining your leave category, you won’t receive any credit for it determining your years of service for retirement, nor will it be used in your annuity computation, unless you make a deposit to the civilian retirement system. If you do that and are receiving (or entitled to) military retired pay, you’d have to waive that pay when you retire.
