Q. I am in CSRS. I will be 55 on Sept. 3. I will have 36 years and seven months at that time. Would it be beneficial for me to stay until February of next year to have a total of 37 years of service? I planned on retiring in December. A. I can give you the facts. If you retire with 36 years and seven months of service, your annuity would equal 69.4167 percent of your high-3. If you retire with 37 years of service, it would be 70.25 percent of your high-3. If you have any unused sick…
Browsing: unused sick leave
Q. I am a FERS employee who will have approximately 100 hours of sick leave by the time I plan to leave my federal position (March 1, 2013) under the MRA+10 policy. I plan to defer my pension disbursement as I will be 52 when I leave federal service. How will my unused sick time figure into my deferred annuity calculation? A. It will be added to your actual service time and used in the computation of your annuity. However, your annuity will only be increased if your leftover hours of actual service and sick leave hours add up to…
Q. I am a FERS employee who separated in January 2001 with a sick leave balance. I returned to federal employment as a presidential appointee. When I retire, will I receive credit for the sick leave balance I had when I separated in 2001? A. Yes, the unused sick leave balance will be recredited to you.
Q. I am considering retiring Dec. 31. I turned 62 on April 7, and as of Aug. 28, I will have 42 years and four months of total service. Scenario 1: What if I decide wait until Jan. 2, 2013, to retire instead? Would I get full credit for any unused annual or sick leave I would have accrued if I stayed to the new year? Scenario 2: Will the excess retirement dollars from September 2012 to Dec. 31 (date of retirement) equate to any percentage of annuity or lump-sum payment after I retire? A. You’ll have to check with…
Q. I am a FERS employee and will be eligible to retire after Nov. 25. I have already received an estimate from human resources on pay. My sick leave balance will be about 400 hours at the time of my retirement. HR worked out a scenario with a retirement date of Dec. 31 and another with Jan. 31, 2013. Both showed my sick leave being worth only one month. I called and asked about the change on Jan. 1, 2013, of each 174 hours of sick leave being equal to one month of service, and that I should be able…
Q. I retired from the Federal Aviation Administration on Dec. 31, 2011. Human resources told me I was going to retire with 38 years of service. The exact figure with sick leave was 38 years, two months and two days. I was surprised when I saw my retirement plaque for 37 years, since I was told it would be 38 years. The retirement paperwork from the region that arrived at my house after my retirement stated the same time as above. I also received a letter from the Office of Personnel Management confirming that the HR section in my region…
Q. I started work for TSA five years ago. I am age 60. At the time, I was never told that if I didn’t use health care benefits through one of the government plans, I couldn’t use them when I retire. At the time I was hired, my wife had good insurance, and I hated to switch. Now I want to retire and have been told I had to be enrolled in the health care plan for five years to stay get health care while retired. I saved the government money by not using benefits — maybe as much as…
Q. I had 38 years of federal service with the Architect of the Capitol. Will I receive the extra money paid into CSRS system six years past 32 years? How will that money be paid to me? A. As a rule, CSRS employees have to work 41 years and 11 months to earn an annuity that equals 80 percent of their high-3. That’s the maximum amount that can be paid in an annuity based on creditable service. Only special category employees, such as law enforcement officers and firefighters, can reach the 80 percent limit with fewer years and full months…
Q. I worked for the Postal Service under CSRS. I worked continuously for 36 years and 10 months, and got one month credit for my sick leave. Concurrently with my service with the Postal Service, I was in the California National Guard and later the Army Reserve. I had a few months of active-duty time, but I never separated from the Postal Service, nor did I have any nonqualifying years. When I retired, I was told that since I was never separated, the time would not affect my annuity, and indeed I never submitted any paperwork, nor did I fill out…
Q. What is the limit of unused sick leave that can be accredited toward a CSRS employee’s annuity? It is widely agreed at 2087. However, I can’t find any documentation. If I have over 3,000 hours, what happens to the rest? Does it boost survivor benefits if the annuitant passes away? A. What is “widely agreed” is pure nonsense. There is no limit to the amount of sick leave that can be credited to a CSRS retiree’s account. The mistake in thinking that 2,087 is the maximum number is simply a byproduct of the fact that most sick leave conversion charts stop…