Q. What is the formula for calculating the FERS annuity percentage? I work for the Postal Service and have 28 years of service at age 53 (minimum retirement age 56). I heard the FERS annuity percentage was 1 percent x (high-3 average wages) x years of service. However, I also heard unused sick leave changes the percentage, and if you have over 2,080 hours saved and returned, it changes the percentage from 1 percent to 2 percent. I thought the unused sick leave only increased your years of service, but others tell me it increases the percentage.
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Q. I am retiring from the Air Force on Sept. 1. How many days out can I accept a civil service job and when can I start working? My terminal leave starts July 15.
Q. I have been an 1811 status (federal agent) federal employee for 16 years. I have been on leave without pay and receiving workers’ compensation for the past year due to an on-the-job injury. I have received little if any guidance from my agency’s HR, as the representatives admit they have little or no experience with workers’ comp. What should I do to maintain the best possible benefits for me and my family if this becomes a long-term/permanent situation and I am not able to return to work? And if I can return to work, how would the time on…
Q. I am a law enforcement officer who has been out on workers’ compensation since June 2011. My scheduled retirement date is in July with 20 years of service at age 55. I’m being paid partial disability at this time. Since I haven’t been on the job since 2011, did annual and sick leave still accrue? What happens with workers’ comp after retirement?
Q. Processing an individual for immediate retirement with an effective date of Jan. 1, 2013, but realized she was ineligible because she’s not 62 with five years of credible service. So we need to do leave without pay on her to get her past her 62nd birthday. She stopped working Dec. 31. What date do we make the leave without pay date effective? What should the end date be so that she can retire April 1, 2013?
Q. I’m a FERS employee preparing to retire at age 60 and 29 years of service. I have informed my human resources office and received the applications and an annuity estimate. I realize from reading your columns that the end of a pay period and month are good times to retire to receive the last annual leave increment and to begin the annuity on the first day of the following month. This year, a biweekly pay period ends on Saturday, June 1. However, that is not a work day in my agency. Can I retire on Friday, May 31 and…
Q. After 35 years with the federal government, I retired Feb. 29, 2012. During my last full pay period, I used 16 hours of sick leave. I discovered after a call from OPM recently that a correction to my final sick leave balance was made by my former employing agency, modestly increasing my sick leave balance. OPM informed me today that after the correction, my sick leave balance was six hours short of the number of hours needed to bring my total creditable working hours up by one more full month. After hearing this, I realize that had I used…
Q. I am a FERS transferee with more than 29 years in federal service. When I transferred from CSRS to FERS in 1998, I had 103 hours of sick leave (under CSRS). I am planning to retire in 2014 and will have almost 1,700 hours of sick leave. I am being told that the only sick leave I will get credit for as a FERS transferee is the 103 hours of sick leave that was on the personnel action when I transferred — not the almost 1,700 hours of sick leave that have accumulated since. Can this be correct?
Q. I was injured in September 2010 and was out of work until I retired on disability in March 2011. I exhausted my annual and sick leave, since my initial workers’ compensation claim was denied. After numerous appeals, my workers’ compensation claim was approved in October 2011. I began receiving interim retirement payments in September 2011 but have yet to receive payment from OPM for annual and sick leave I would have accumulated during that period. I have contacted DFAS and OPM, along with filing two congressionals regarding this issue, but no resolution. Shouldn’t I be paid for the time…
Q. I was injured on the job while working for the federal government and spent 26 years as an annuitant under the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs. Recently, I was terminated from OWCP as being recovered from my work-related injury and retired under CSRS as a disability retiree. When I received my first retirement check, I noticed that federal taxes had been deducted. Is this correct? I had thought that disability retirement annuities were not taxable. Will these tax deductions end at some time in the future, perhaps at my minimum retirement age? I will be 68 years old in…