Q. Can you please comment on any pros and cons to retiring Nov. 29, 2014? I will have a prior balance of 208 hours of annual leave and 192 hours in 2014 accumulated as of that date and do not want to forfeit the use-or-lose balance.
Browsing: Annual leave
Q. I am a full-time federal employee with more than two years of service, and I am also a veteran with eight years of active-duty service. I was informed by my supervisor that I should be accruing more than four hours of annual leave per pay period based on my years of service from the military. I am paying to buy back those eight years of military service. Do I have to wait until my eight years of service have been paid for to have my annual leave accrual adjusted, or should it be adjusted right away? I am a…
Q. I am looking at retiring in January 2015. I will be 56 years old Oct. 15. I will have 30 years in as of Dec. 24. Waiting until the end of leave year to cash in all available annual leave. I am looking at cashing out my Thrift Savings Plan in a lump sum to pay off all debts. Will that income be considered part of earned income so that the special retirement supplement is reduced? If so, would it be in my interest to retire at the end of 2014 so that my annual leave hits that year…
Q. I was recently told by a more senior colleague that it is valuable to accrue the maximum amount of vacation days you can in your first year, such that you get the greatest value/return when you finally retire (assumes you don’t use this maximum amount and roll it over year over year). Is this true? Why is that the case? Is it because when you retire (if you have unused vacation days), you can request their value in payment/cash rather than taking them as time off?
Q. I am completely out of annual leave and sick leave and have recently received a cancer diagnosis. My local human resources department has informed me of two options: voluntary leave transfer program and advance leave request. However, I don’t want to have to worry about losing my job, etc., and may not feel good enough to come back to my old job. What are my options? Are there any disability benefits available to me? What is early retirement for someone like me who is only 48 years old and has eight years of service with the Veterans Affairs Department?
Q. Does the lump-sum payment for annual leave count against maximum earnings to be eligible for the special retirement supplement? Also, if I choose a retirement date and the application begins processing, can I back out before that date?
Q. I retired from the Department of Agriculture on Jan. 3 with a balance of 440 hours of annual leave. The earnings statement for the lump-sum payment I received Feb. 1 shows that I was paid at my 2013 GS-12 hourly rate. I thought I was to be paid for this leave with the new 2014 hourly pay rate that is 1 percent higher since this payment was made after the new rates went into effect. Am I correct? If so how do I get this rectified?
Q. I am a FERS employee and have more than 650 hours of annual leave and over 2,000 hours of sick leave. I am 58 years old with 28 years of FERS service this year. Would I be able to cash out my annual leave when I stop working at the end of this year if I deferred my retirement until age 60 so I would not get penalized by 5 percent a year for retiring before 30 years of service?
Q. I am going to retire in September. Is it better to use my annual leave for sick leave appointments in 2014 so that the sick leave rolls into my retirement? What is the formula which would tell me how much sick leave = how much extra pension?
Q. The following is from the U.S. Postal Service Employment and Labor Relations Manual: 512.732 Entitlement Amounts Separating employees may receive lump-sum terminal leave payments as follows: Nonbargaining Unit Employees. Nonbargaining unit employees may receive a lump-sum leave payment for accumulated annual leave carried over from the previous year; accrued annual leave for the year in which they separate, including amounts over the carryover maximum; any unused donated leave; and for full-time and part-time regular employees, holidays that fall within the terminal leave period. I retired Oct. 31 with an annual leave balance of 576 hours, for which I received…