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…
Q: In the Federal Employees Retirement System, when can we take sick-leave cash? Only at retirement or before? A: Regardless of whether you are covered by the Civil Service Retirement System or FERS, you can never cash in your sick leave. It has no cash value.
Q: This regards the recently enacted legislation that allows retirees to return to work on a part-time, limited basis. I noticed in a recent inquiry regarding annual leave, the following statement was made: “When you retire, unused annual leave is projected forward as if you were still on the agency’s rolls. If you were to return to work for the government after retiring, you would have to refund the money for any days that have not gone by.” My agency is considering hiring me back for two weeks after I retire to clean up some leftover work, but as a…
Q: I’m 58 and have planned on retiring at the end of the year with 40 years and a Civil Service Retirement System annuity. I’ve saved all my annual leave and compensation time, and plan to bank the maximum credit hours to create a significant nest egg (new kitchen). I intended to keep working after retirement, and now they have passed what once was Senate Bill 629- Part-Time Reemployment of Annuitants Act. Sounds like my wish came true and nobody is laughing when I say I want to come back, but I’d like to only work half as many hours…
Q: I recently heard that if you were eligible for Civil Service Retirement System retirement and retired, receiving your retired pay, you could return as a FERS employee for a period of time and not effect your CSRS retired pay. Could you elaborate on this program or provide information where I could find out more about it? A: As you described it, no, it isn’t true. As a rule, if you retire and return to work for the government, the salary of your new position — it will be offset by the amount of your annuity. It doesn’t make any…
Q: I am retired from the Army and receive retired pay and disability pay. I am also a civilian employee under the Federal Employees Retirement System. When I am eligible to retire, will I be paid my military retired pay, disability pay, retirement pay as a civilian employee and also receive my Social Security? Would it be advantageous to sell back my military time to incorporate it into my civilian time under FERS? If I do sell back my military time, do I forfeit continuance of my military retired pay? A: If you retire without making a deposit to the…