Q: My question is about the original conversion of retirement withholding, which was converted to Federal Employees Retirement System. I began working for the government in October 1984. So, I was hired as a FERS employee. In 1987, when FERS was officially set up and the money that had been withheld from our paychecks was placed in our FERS accounts, I had $660, which stayed in a Civil Service Retirement System marked account. It stayed there for many years until I switched agencies, and it was no longer listed on my Leave and Earnings Statement. My question is, what exactly…
Author Reg Jones
Reg Jones
Reg Jones was head of retirement and insurance policy at the Office of Personnel Management. Email your retirement-related questions to fedexperts@federaltimes.com.
Q: Will civil service employees who have accumulated sick leave be able to roll this into their Thrift Savings Plan? If so, is there a limit? A: No you can’t. Unused sick leave has no cash value. It can only be added to your actual service and used in the computation of your annuity.
Q: I read your Nov. 16 column about how Federal Employees Retirement System employees can redeposit retirement refunds. I’m a military retiree, but I spent approximately 5.5 years post-military time at the Small Business Administration and Department of Homeland Security. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of taking a very small refund for my retirement time at SBA, totaling about 18 months. That put me under the 5 years of federal service that I would need to qualify for a pension, albeit a small one. As I read your column, I gathered that I can repay the amount I received at…
Q: The Office of Personnel Management Web site states, “You only have 31 days from the date of your appointment to an eligible position to elect optional insurance.” I would like to know if that applies when you are moved to a new position with a new job identifier due to re-organization? A: No, it doesn’t. The 31-day window only applies to a new employee of the federal government.
Q: Can you tell me if applications are now available for the newly announced public service loan forgiveness option? I heard that the Office of Personnel Management was supposed to have made an announcement on this subject several weeks ago. A: This is not an OPM program. However, when I checked with them, they informed me that you can get information about it by calling 1-800-FED-AID or visiting www.studentaid.ed.gov.
Q: I have 12 years of legislative work experience working for Congress and 10 years of administration work experience, and I’m in the Federal Employees Retirement System. For the FERS retirement formula, is it high-3 X 1.7% X 12, and then high-3 X 1% X 10? Are my 12 years of legislative experience treated with a different rate multiplier than administrative years? A: Yes, your time as a Hill staffer will be computed using the 0.017 multiplier; all additional years of service will be multiplied by 0.01.
Q. Is there any word on the federal government offering early outs? A: No.
Q: A position was upgraded from GS-2005-7 to GS-2010-9 here at my department. Because of these changes (series and grade), should this position be open for competition? Should it be announced to eligible applicants? Are there any references that you can provide regarding this issue? A: It’s not a “upgrade” when a position is in a different occupational series and two grades higher. You are currently a GS-7 employee in the Supply Clerical and Technical series (GS-2005). The new position is set at GS-9 in the Inventory Management series (GS-2010). The qualification and classification standards for the 2005 series are…
Q: I am preparing to retire under the Civil Service Retirement System. I believe that all of my ducks are in a row for this event, but there is one question that I have regarding leave benefits. I was a drilling Army reservist until I transferred to the retired reserve in 1998. I will be eligible for a pension when I turn 60 in four years. My question is in regard to the military leave balance that shows up on my leave and earning statement every payday. While working as a civilian employee, I was entitled to 15 days per…
Q: I understand that President Barack Obama has approved Federal Employees Retirement System employees to receive service credit for unused sick leave. My question involves retirement prior to January 1, 2014, where an employee receives service credit for half of their unused sick leave. Does half of the sick leave have to be in whole months? Example: If an employee has 2,000 hours of sick leave upon retirement, this employee would have 11 months of service credit. At the half rate, would the employee be reduced to five-and-a-half months, or would the benefit reduce to five months (since only full…