By Reg Jones
Unused military leave
November 17th, 2009 | Uncategorized
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 year of military leave; if not used, that was carried over so that the following year 30 days was available. When I transferred to the retired reserve in 1998, that 15 days was still carried on the books. I will retire on January 1, 2010, with this accrued balance. I know that my annual leave (including that in excess of 240 hours) and my compensatory time will be converted to cash. Also, my sick leave will be tacked on to my length of service. What will be done with the 240 hours (30 days) of military leave? Does it just go away like use-or-lose travel compensatory time and excess annual leave; or, can it be converted to cash or extension of length of service?
A: It just goes away. It has no cash or retirement credit value.
Tags: cash, credit, CSRS, retirement
Sick leave calculation
November 17th, 2009 | Uncategorized
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 months of leave count)?
A: At retirement, your unused sick leave hours will be divided by two, with half of them being added to any actual service hours that didn’t add up to one month. The total will be converted into retirement hours. This is done by dividing 2,087 — the number of hours in a work year — by 360, which represents 12 30-day annuity months. The result is a 5.797+ hour day and a roughly 174 hour month. After all the months are counted, any hours that are left over will be dropped.
Cashing in sick leave
November 17th, 2009 | Uncategorized
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.
Annual leave projection for contractors
November 17th, 2009 | Uncategorized
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 contractor. Does the annual leave projection also apply to contractors?
A: The rule applies to those who are appointed to a position in the federal government. As a rule, contractors don’t receive such an appointment. You need to check with your agency’s personnel office to see if you’ll be able to keep your lump sum annual leave payment or be required to pay some of it back.
Tags: annual, hiring, leave, legislation
Unused annual leave
November 17th, 2009 | Uncategorized
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 while I keep my annuity. After all, it costs the agency less than a 20 percent retention bonus that kept me here over the past year. However, as I begin looking into this in detail, it appears that there may be a problem with my plans. Some of what I have read suggests that when it comes to the lump-sum payment for my 448 hours of annual leave — immediate reemployment would result in my leave being carried forward rather than giving me a lump-sum payment. It looks like I would need to be separated for a length of time equal to the leave I have accumulated if I want to receive the lump-sum payment for it. Questions: 1. Am I interpreting the rule about the handling of lump sum leave correctly with regard to reemployment? 2. What would happen to my accumulated leave over the 240-hour limit? – I am fearful that it would be lost and I can’t imagine they would pay me for 208 hours and carry over the 240 hours. 3. It seems that if I am reemployed as an intermittent employee, then I avoid the problem I seem to have dreamed up and get to keep the position and the full lump-sum payment. Is that right or just wishful thinking? By the way — I’m not familiar with the intermittent employee concept — never met one and I can’t seem to find a definition for it.
A: I’ll answer your questions in the order you asked them: 1. Yes, your interpretation is correct. 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. 2. If you were to retire before the end of the leave year, you would receive payment for all the unused annual leave hours you had to your credit. However, if you returned to work for the government, you wouldn’t be recredited with any hours that exceeded the carry-over limit unless you are reemployed before the end of the leave year. If you were still employed when the leave year ended, any hours over the limit would be lost. 3. Intermittent service means that you would be working for a limited period of time on an as-needed basis. If you were reemployed within the first six months after retiring, you would be limited to a maximum of 540 hours. If you were reemployed after six months had passed, you could work up to 1,040 hours in a year. The lifetime limit is 3,120 hours. On a final note, the fact that you would like to go back to work on a part-time basis is no guarantee that your agency would approve that request. This provision of law only allows an agency to grant a waiver that would allow you to receive both your annuity and the full salary of a position if certain strict criteria are met.
Tags: annual, CSRS, intermittent, leave
Returning to work
November 17th, 2009 | Uncategorized
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 difference if you return to work in the retirement system from which you retired or switch to another system. However, a recent change in law does allow agencies to re-employ annuitants without an offset. The criteria are tight and the positions are time-limited: only 540 hours if hired within six months after retiring, 1,040 in a year if hired after the six-month period, and a lifetime limit of 3,120 hours.
Tags: annuity, CSRS, retirement
Selling back military time
November 17th, 2009 | Uncategorized
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 retirement fund and waiving receipt of your military retired pay, you would receive a FERS annuity based solely on your FERS service, your military retired pay, your disability pay, and a Social Security benefit based on all your Social Security-covered employment. If you do make a deposit for that time and waive your military retired pay, you would receive a FERS annuity based on your active duty and FERS service, your disability pay, and a Social Security benefit based on all your Social Security-covered employment.
Tags: disability, FERS, pay, retired
Correcting paygrade
November 17th, 2009 | Uncategorized
Q: I did not check the appropriate box for Superior Academic Achievement when I applied for my current position and was hired as a GS-05 instead of a GS-07 even though I am qualified as a GS-07. Is there any way around the bureaucracy to get my paygrade corrected?
A: The matter rests exclusively between you and your agency. You’ll have to discuss the matter with your supervisor and someone in you personnel office.
Tags: achievement, agency, pay, superior
Retirement annuity calculation
November 17th, 2009 | Uncategorized
Q: I reside in Hawaii and I’m a Civil Service Retirement System employee with the U.S. Postal Service. I’m eligible for full retirement. The recent Defense Authorization Act has an amendment concerning Territorial Cost of Living Allowance/Locality pay for civil servants in non-foreign areas outside the continental U.S. I have spent many hours researching this, but I cannot find an answer to the question of USPS/locality pay/TCola. How will this affect USPS employees in Hawaii? I understand some of it, but the key question is — since we will remain under the Tcola program, will it be included in calculations for our retirement annuity?
A: Under Public Law 111-84, non-foreign area COLAs will be replaced by the locality pay formula used in the contiguous 48 states. Beginning in calendar year 2010, those employees now covered by non-foreign area COLAs would receive one-third of the locality rate paid in the RUS (rest of the U.S.). In 2011, two-thirds would be paid. And from 2013 on, the full comparability adjustment would be made. To protect take-home pay, these employees will continue to receive non-foreign area COLAs, but they will shrink each year until the employees’ post-tax pay is equal to or higher than what their take-home pay would have been if the transition hadn’t taken place.
Tags: annuity, authorization, defense, postal
Payment schedule after retirement
November 17th, 2009 | Uncategorized
Q. In preparation for my projected retirement as a Civil Service Retirement System employee from the Defense Department on Jan. 2, 2010, I would like to confirm when I will receive any payments due to me. Since Jan. 2, 2010, is not only the end of the pay period but the last day in which any accrued leave can be paid out, can I expect to see not only my regular pay but my accrued leave included on the next scheduled pay date, estimated to be Jan. 8, 2010. After this, my annuity would then arrive the first week of the next month, or in February?
A: If you retire at the end of the last pay period in 2009, you would receive the salary you earned during that pay period in your final check as an employee. It won’t include the lump-sum payment for your unused annual leave. You won’t receive that until your application for retirement has been processed by your agency and forwarded to OPM. Because you are covered by CSRS, you will be on the annuity roll in January, with your first annuity payment due Feb. 1. However, because it will take time for your agency to close out your account and forward the paperwork to OPM for processing, it’s unlikely that you’ll receive your first annuity payment until March. That payment would include any annuity due to you from Jan. 3 through the end of February.
Tags: civil, defense, retirement