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Return to Article: Taking Your Lumps

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  Does your high three years include locality pay for the purpose of calculating retirement pay?

  Mary Quinn Posted July 16, 2009 10:20 AM
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  Tammy I could use some assistance if possible,I feel this article is applicable to my situation I retierd on 3 jan 09 directly from my overseas Base. I received my LES on 1/8 09 I was paid my differential for regular 80hrs, but not for my lump sum I checked with my agency payroll office and was referred to my HR retirement specialist who also claims,not knowing what rule or regulation applies for retaining differential on lump sum Annual leave buyout. Can you give me a link to where i can find this info

  Thank You Tom Davis

  Thomas Davis Posted January 9, 2009 1:50 PM
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  I would like to retire on Jan 1, 2011 (which is a Sat) and plan to have more than 240 hours of annual leave. I work a Mon-Fri work week. Should I still expect to receive a check for the excess leave at the new pay rate (assuming there is one) and my first retirement check on February 1?

  Paula Martinez Posted January 9, 2009 11:41 AM
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  The article stated that a CSRS person can get paid a lump sum for use or lose leave beyond the 240 carryover if they retire on 1/1/10, Friday. Does this mean that retiring on Saturday, 1/2/10, the end of the PP, would mean the extra (beyond 240 hrs) hours would be lost and no lump sum paid for them?

  Jon Streufert Posted January 9, 2009 9:26 AM
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  I am planning retirement January 2, 2009. I had a break in federal service 1986 to 1991. My retirement is calculated under the CSRS Offset method. My sick leave was not restored after the break in service. Nevertheless, I see nothing in the Retirement Facts #8 that excludes my previous sick leave from being used to calculate my retirement date. Whether or not the sick leave was restored should not be a factor. I earned it and feel it should be used in the retirement calculations. Please advise.

  Fred M Paulson Jr Posted October 7, 2008 9:57 PM
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  I am a CSRS Federal Employee planning to retire on 2/3/09. I am a GS employee working 12 hour shifts. On the job, I get paid night differential pay, Sunday premium pay, holiday pay, and time and a half for overtime. When I retire and receive lump sum payment for my annual leave, is any of the above premium pays used in calculating my lump sum payment or do I get paid my annual leave figured solely on my hourly rate? Please respond. Thank you.

  Brenda Langston Posted August 28, 2008 8:03 AM
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  I plan to retire on 2 Jan 09 (CSRS partial offset); but only work through 19 Dec 08 -- then take annual and holiday leave. Will I accrue annual and sick leave for 21 Dec 08 - 3 Jan 09 pay period?

  Steven Hall Posted August 4, 2008 6:27 PM
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  I am a FERS employee, planning to retire at the end of 2009 or early 2010. I have been told that if I am on a higher level detail at retirement, my lump sum will be paid at that hourly rate, not my normal hourly rate. Is this true?

  Nellie Ruth Busey Posted August 4, 2008 1:03 PM
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  Retiring at the end of the year does not guarantee that an individual will recieve a lump sum payment for unused leave at the next year's rate. I retired on January 3rd 2007 and as of today I have only recieved one lump sum check at the 2006 pay rate for the 409 annual leave hours I had at retirement. I have made numerous inquries through my former agency and a US senator(in June), and am still waiting for the second lump sum check to arrive, it's now August 4th.

  Donald Johnston Posted August 4, 2007 5:35 PM
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  I retired under FERS on 12/31/2005 and received a lump sum payment for over 400 hours of annual leave along with my pay period 26 check on 1/18/2006. Now the Social Security Administration wants $4,460 back because they said I exceeded the earnings limit of $12,480 for 2006. I did not work in 2006, all my W-2 earnings were for work performed in 2005. Alert your readers to take their paystubs for the lump sum into their local SSA office so this does not happen to them.

  Dwight Cundy Posted July 31, 2007 9:59 PM
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  Anyone who questions whether to take the lump sum payment for their unused annual leave or stay on the payroll and use up the leave should read Scott's comments below! What we sometimes forget is that while we are "using up the leave" we could have been receiving a retirement check! For many long career civil servants, there is no question that the lump sum payment is the way to go. Under FERS, especially when someone has retired with less than 20 years of service, I might agree that staying on the payroll and using the leave would allow them to increase their TSP, Increase the FERS annuity and increase the their Social Security benefit and might be worth giving up a retirement check or two that might only be replacing 15% or 20% of your high three.

  But... Civilian employees are not supposed to be approved for terminal leave anyway, so it isn't really an issue. The lump sum payment is not considered part of your basic pay, so you can not contribute to the TSP out of the lump sum payment (nor do you have to make retirement contributions from it either).

  Tammy Flanagan Posted January 23, 2007 3:08 PM
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  I retired on April 1. I was paid for 317 hours of accumulated leave and received a pension check for the period starting April 2. If I had gone on terminal leave, I would have received the same pay over the next two months as I received lump sum (ignoring the fact that 7 percent was not deducted from lump sum for CSRS) but I would have missed two pension checks worth more than $11,000. I would have earned four more days of leave but that is barely more than I would have paid is CSRS deductions. Seemed like a simple answer to me.

  Scott D McLennan Posted January 23, 2007 10:49 AM
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  The lump sum amount will help carry one over until the retirement checks start.

  HR Assistant

  GovExec.com reader Posted January 23, 2007 8:16 AM
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  Gregg, terminal leave is not authorized in most cases, besides financially you come out better with the lump sum every time. Read some of Tammy's past articles for more info.

  RJR Posted January 23, 2007 5:36 AM
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  Can I have the lump sum placed directly into my TSP account? More specifically, if I retire on Jan. 3, 2008, can I have the full allowable 2008 TSP amount ($15,500 plus catch-up, I believe) in one lump sum, if I have that much available?

  Thanks -

  JP

  John Polk Posted January 22, 2007 1:09 PM
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  I don't understand why retirees take the lump sum rather than using the leave. You get paid for the leave either way. If you use the leave, then you get more leave while you use it and it extends your service time for your annuity. Why not work until eligible to retire, then go on leave until the leave is used up and then set your retirement date for when the leave is used up? Is it that your agency will not let you? Are there rules limiting the amount of terminal leave you can take?

  Gregg Wagener Posted January 19, 2007 11:00 AM