The following is a question submitted by a reader to Federal Times columnist Reg Jones, a charter member of the senior executive service and the resident expert on federal employee retirement issues.
A Fed Times reader asks:
“I retired from military with 14 years as an E6. I am not receiving annuity from that retirement. I am also a federal employee. I bought back my military time for leave purposes. When I get ready to retire, will I have to pay a deposit to have my 14 years applied for retirement purposes?
I am trying to see if it would be beneficial for me to waive my military time and have that added to my fed time for retirement purposes.
I have seven years federal work time, after the military. From my understanding, there is a bill pending for medical retirees to receive annuities. I’m trying to wait until that is passed to determine if I will apply my 14 years towards retirement.”
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Reg’s reponse:
When you made a deposit to get credit for your active duty service, you also got credit for additional civilian service time. When you retire, you’ll have the option of waiving your military retired pay and having that time used in the computation of your civilian annuity or you can have it based solely on your civilian service.
If you did that, you’d be entitled to a refund of your military deposit, plus accrued interest. Since you don’t have to decide whether to waive your military retired pay until you retire, you’ll know at that time if the bill you referred to became law.
Got a question for the Federal Times expert? Send inquiries to: fedexperts@federaltimes.com
Reg Jones, a charter member of the senior executive service, is our resident expert on retirement and the federal government. From 1979 to '95, he served as an assistant director of the Office of Personnel Management handling recruiting and examining, white and blue collar pay, retirement, insurance and other issues. Opinions expressed are his own.
