Q: I’m a Federal Employees Retirement Service employee, 54 years old with 25 years of service. I have a 91-year-old father with Alzheimer’s disease who requires full-time care. Is there any program where I could take an early retirement to care for him? Also, I have an upcoming background investigation due. If I didn’t provide this, could I be fired, but still be eligible for immediate retirement? A: Along with receiving approval for the use of annual or sick leave, you could request up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act. Whether you would…
Browsing: Sick leave
Q: Can an employee under the Civil Service Retirement System retire prior to his 55th birthday if sick leave is calculated? For instance, I will turn 55 in June, so with six months of sick leave on the books, can I retire at 54 1/2 years old without penalty? A: Sick leave cannot be added to actual service to qualify you to retire. It can only be added after you have met the age and service requirements to retire.
Q: In reading your article on key dates for federal retirement in the Oct. 4 issue of Federal Times, you say that “CSRS employees get full credit for unused sick leave.” I am eligible to retire by age and years under the Civil Service Retirement System, but have been told that only increments of 174 hours of sick leave will be “rolled” into my retirement calculation. A: At retirement, any days and hours of actual service that don’t add up to a full month are added to any hours of unused sick leave. To provide retirees with 12 equal monthly payments,…
Q: From Oct. 28, 2009, to Dec. 31, 2013, half of of sick leave may be credited toward retirement time. Is that correct? If so, does a Federal Employees Retirement System employee who retires in that window receive payment for the other half of the unused sick leave, or is it just lost? Do FERS retirees receive full payment for unused vacation time? A: Any FERS employee retiring between now and Dec. 31, 2013, will only receive credit for half of his unused sick leave. The rest is lost. After that date, full credit will be given. All employees, whether…
Q: I understand that under the Civil Service Retirement System, we can use unused sick leave toward federal service time that is used to determine the amount of time considered under the CSRS retirement pay formula. Also, I understand that under CSRS, the maximum time allowed is 42 years, which translates to 80 percent of the average salary in a worker’s “high-3” years. My questions are, if someone is covered by CSRS, if they add up their military and civil service time and get 42 years, can unused sick leave be added to the 42 years to get more than…
Q: An employee told me that if you retire (under the Civil Service Retirement System) with your full 41 years, 11 months, or more of service, and have more than one year of sick leave, you have the option to receive the cash payout for the sick leave instead of taking the extra 2 percent. Is there any truth to this rumor? A: No, there isn’t. Unlike annual leave, sick leave has no cash value. On the other hand, it can be added to actual service time after you become eligible to retire and used to increase the amount of…
Q: I am retired under the Federal Employees Retirement System. I had sick leave accrued, but I did not use it before I retired. I am looking at returning to federal service; will the sick leave I did not use be given back to me if I am rehired? A: Yes, it will.
Q: Is unused sick leave (now credited to length of service for annuity purposes) included/applied to calculations of Federal Employees Retirement System law enforcement officers’ length of service? A: No. Sick leave is only added after an employee has met the eligibility requirements for an annuity.
Q: How is sick leave to be apportioned when a employee retires with a Civil Service Retirement System component to a Federal Employees Retirement System pension? When I transferred to FERS, I had 275 hours of sick leave frozen. I expect to retire before December 2012 with 700 hours of sick leave, and I understand that half, or 350 hours, would be credited toward my retirement. However, there doesn’t seem to be any clear information on how that 350 hours would be allocated. Can you help? A: Your frozen CSRS sick leave balance will be added to your actual service…
Q: I have prior military service. Now I am a federal employee. Can unused military sick leave be used as service credit in the computation of benefits under the Federal Employees Retirement System when I retire? A: No. You can’t use it in your annuity computation or for any other purpose as a civilian employee of the federal government.