Q: I’ve been trying to find details on the new Federal Employees Retirement System Redeposit, but have had no luck. Do you have any details? A: The Office of Personnel Management is still working up guidance and revising the application form. If you are retiring in the near future, OPM will tell you now how much you owe and let you make the redeposit before they finish processing your retirement application. If you aren’t retiring soon and are simply eager to get the paperwork moving, you can fill out a copy of the current Standard Form 3107, Application for Immediate…
Browsing: Creditable service: FERS
Q: I have 20 years of military service as an Air Force reservist. I plan to accept a federal GS-14 position and make a deposit into the Federal Employees Retirement System to get credit for my military service in my federal retirement calculation. Then I will retire from the reserves and receive reserve retirement pay. Under FERS, will I be forced to waive my reserve retirement pay? A: Making a deposit to get credit for any active duty service in the military won’t have any effect on your reserve retired pay. You will not have to waive it. That requirement…
Q: I am a Federal Employees Retirement System employee who started as a civilian federal employee in 1989 after 5½ years of active-duty military service. I am 49 years old. I am trying to figure out if it would make sense to buy back my military time. Is there a retirement age gap between when it would be a good idea and when it would not be? I am currently a GS-11 and the buy-back amount would be a little under $6,000. I also retired from the Army Reserve back in 2000. A: I can’t tell you whether you should…
Q: When I retire, I will have 2,203 hours of sick leave. I am under Civil Service Retirement System Offset. I believe 2,087 hours is the equivalent of one year of service when I retire. So when I retire at age 58, — at 30 years, 6 months of service — I will get an extra year added to my time, so I will have 31 years, 6 months of service that will apply for purposes of calculating my retirement annuity. Is this correct? My husband works a nine-hour schedule that gives him one day off every week. Does the…
Q: Did I overpay to get credit for my military service? According to a Government Executive newsletter article (Jan. 15, 2010, issue), Federal Employees Retirement System employees were supposed to pay 3 percent of the base pay they earned during military service in order to get retirement credit for that service, while Civil Service Retirement System employees were to pay 7 percent. I paid at the 7 percent rate in 2002 although I was a FERS employee at the time. Specifically, although I began as a federal employee under CSRS in 1976 after my military service, I voluntarily switched to…
Q. I retired with a Voluntary Early Retirement Authority on Dec. 31, 2008; am I entitled to one-half of my unused sick leave? I heard that if the bill passed within one year of your retirement date you would be entitled, and, if so, how do I go about receiving compensation? A: You are misinformed. The provision allowing FERS retirees to get credit for unused sick leave applied only to those employees retiring on or after the date the law was enacted, which occurred on Oct. 28, 2009.