Years of creditable service

Q. I will have 43 years of Civil Service in June 21, 2019. I have accrued 2,770 hours of sick leave. Will I have these sick leave hours added to my retirement? Will I lose any hours after accumulating 2,087 hours of sick leave?

A. When you have 41 years and 11 months of creditable service, you will have reached the maximum annuity a CSRS employee can receive: 80 percent of your high-3. Any contributions that were deducted from your pay after that point will be returned to you. You can either accept that payment or use it to buy additional annuity that isn’t subject to the 80 percent limit. The same is true of your unused sick leave. There is no limit to the number of hours that can be converted to months and used to increase your annuity. However, any hours that don’t add up to a full month – roughly 174 – will be dropped.