Q: My retirement date was July 1. I have negative-170 hours of sick leave and negative-32 hours of annual leave. I will receive an annuity, but I will get an interim amount first: How much will I have to pay back? A: Unless your agency waives payment, you will owe a debt that must be repaid. Whether they will require you to pay it before you separate or ask the Office of Personnel Management to withhold the required amount from your annuity is a decision they will have to make. You need to talk to someone in your personnel office…
Browsing: Sick leave
Q: I am a federal employee with just more than 29 years of service. I am 56 and I am under CSRS. If offered, I will take the early-out in December. What will happen to my sick leave? A: Any unused sick leave hours will be added to any hours of actual work that don’t add up to a full month. Any additional months created will be added to your actual service and used in the computation of your annuity. For retirement purposes, those months are 174 hours long. Any hours left over will be dropped.
Q: I am a retired soldier with 22.5 years of active-duty service, half enlisted and half officer, and four years in the reserves. When I entered the GS system a little over a year ago, I was told that my service time was used to compute my annual and sick leave and that I would be maxed out at eight hours per pay period because I had more than 20 years of service. I was only accruing four hours per pay period for some time, but just figured there was a paperwork backlog. I eventually asked about the matter and…
Q: I am a postal inspector under the Civil Service Retirement System. I plan on retiring with more than 2,500 hours of sick leave. The Office of Personnel Management shows a sick leave conversion chart rate based on 2,087 hours a year. The Postal Service human resources department uses a chart based on 2,080 a year. Upon retirement, does OPM accept the Postal Service conversion rate, or do they calculate based on their own conversion chart? Is there a reason the Postal Service uses a different conversion chart? A: By law, a work year is 2,087 hours long. OPM will…
Q: I work for the DHS/ICE. I will retire in September of 2015 at 60 with about 22 years of service. I am covered under FERS. I hear two answers about what happens to unused sick time. One answer is that I will receive a lump sum for the unused sick time, the other is that it will be credited toward my time in service. Which is true? A: Sick leave has no cash value. It may only be added to your actual service after you meet the age and service requirements to retire.
Q: This past year, I was off work for more than six months due to surgeries. I used all of my annual and accrued sick leave. I was donated leave by co-workers and was the recipent of 100 hrs of advanced sick leave. I plan on retiring in June and probably won’t have but half of the sick leave paid back. Can I transfer annual leave to cover the shortage, or will I be forced to pay back the difference in cash at or near my retirement date? Further, my military payback won’t be complete by June, just 50 percent…
Q: Is there any rule that allows a FERS member (getting ready to retire) to transfer sick leave to their daughter (another FERS employee) in case of any future emergency? Rather give it than take the reduced credit for retirement purposes. A: No, there isn’t.
Q: You recently answered a question regarding sick leave credit, outlining the formula used to determine the credit at retirement. Does the same formula apply to a worker who works a 4-10 work week? A: Yes.
Q: I served two dependent-restricted tours in South Korea (1988-1989 and 2001-2002). I retired from the Army in 2006. I now work for the Army as a civilian. Does the time I spent in Korea count toward leave accrual? For example, I accrue four hours of annual and sick leave per pay period. Would that time allow me to accrue six hours per pay period, and would I get that credit from the time I began my federal civilian service in March 2009? A: No, it wouldn’t. For retired members of the military, leave accrual credit is only given for…
Q: Under the Federal Employees Retirement System, after 20 years, your annuity is figured at 0.011 percent of your high-3 salary average multiplied by your years of service. Below 20 years, the percentage used is 0.01. With the new law allowing 50 percent of unused sick time to be used for annuity calculations, can that time also be used to meet the 20-years-of-service criterion? A: Let’s first get the computational facts straight. The standard FERS formula is as follows: 0.01 x your high-3 x your years of creditable service. The 0.011 multiplier is only used if you retire at age…