Leave credit and refund

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Q. My wife went from active duty to reservist as a military tech. She bought back all military time while serving as a tech. She was beyond the 20-year mark when she was returned to active duty, where she retired. Now she has been reinstated as civil service. Will she get the benefit of eight hours a pay period for leave purposes? She has 6-plus years under Social Security. If she does not get credit for the previous years of service, can she request a refund from the military buy-back program without affecting previous contributions to her retirement fund?

A. As a rule, employees who are receiving military retired pay don’t get credit for their active-duty service in determining their annual leave accrual rate. She’ll have to check with her personnel office to find out if any leave credit can be given for her time as a military tech. As for that deposit, there are only two ways she can get a refund: (1) if she resigns from the government, or (2) when she retires, if she decides not to have that time used in the computation of her annuity.

Note: If she decides to have that time used in the computation of her civilian annuity, when she retires she’ll have to waive her military retired pay.

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Reg Jones was head of retirement and insurance policy at the Office of Personnel Management. Email your retirement-related questions to fedexperts@federaltimes.com.

2 Comments

  1. On this topic if your are a military retiree and have certain campaign badges you can get credit towards annual leave accrued rate.

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