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  To "Almost Ready" and "p curley", I too had a similar experience. I only found out about the deposit requirement for military service by accident. I made my deposit in 1985. Last year, when I went to get my retirement estimate my military time was not included. When I asked why, I was told that there was no record of my deposit. Fortunately I kept a copy of my deposit and of my deposit check. I suspect that the government deliberately does not keep these records in hopes of keeping retirement payouts lower. The message to anyone making a military deposit: Keep copies of you documents and your canceled check. Don't expect HRO to keep any records! Remember these are the same people who administer NSPS.

  Steve Jones Posted September 17, 2008 8:30 PM
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  To "Almost Ready" You are right on about this getting screwed up. I repaid my Military Deposit in 1989. About 3 years before my retirement, (I retired in Jan '04)I pulled my OPF to insure that everything was in order. Well, it turned out that it wasn't. I had my copy of the cancelled check,(I paid it in a lump sum),a special pay stub which the generated to show the military deposit. There happened to be another co-worker who also repaid his deposit and had his copy of an additional correct form which OPM should have generated when they got my payment. With intercession by my manager, and assistance from this co-worker, things got straigtned out and upon retirement, everything went fine. But this was only because of me being pro active on this. If I trusted them to do everything right, assumed my cancelled check and specially issued pay stub was enough, I would have been stuck at retirement. I would have, at the very least, had to delay my retirement until it got squared away. Worst case, I would have been retired and fighting them for probably the rest of my life.

  p curley Posted September 15, 2008 10:00 PM
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  i have the same question as someone above about qualifying for Social security as a spouse--if i do this prior to age 62, does my CSRS get recomputed. i've not yet paid the whole deposit back, and will not earn enough credits to qualify on my own.

  Steve Randol Posted September 15, 2008 7:45 AM
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  "Hey we are CS and should not be held accountable for our decisions. There should be an automatic do over anytime it wasn't the right decision. You can't expect us to do any research on our time to make a good decision"

  Surely you jest !! Responsibility begins somewhere between kindergarten and jr. high school ! Does this apply to the job also ? I started researching government retirement in the month following my hiring ! Geez...

  kmp

  kmp Posted September 13, 2008 6:37 PM
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  I admit this stuff confuses me.

  I am 54 and inelegible for SS on my own and still will be at 62. From what is in the accompanying article I understand that if I retire after age 62 no deposit for military time is required to receive my full annuity. Is this correct?

  The fine point I'm trying to pin down is whether any elegibility under spouse's SS will disqualify my military time and reduce my annuity. Spouse is six years older and will have retired by the time I am age 62. I just recently began repaying the military time.

  Doug Posted September 12, 2008 12:18 PM
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  Hey we are CS and should not be held accountable for our decisions. There should be an automatic do over anytime it wasn't the right decision. You can't expect us to do any research on our time to make a good decision

  Dan ketter Posted September 12, 2008 11:54 AM
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  One more caution: Once you've paid, keep the receipt in a safe place. Make several copies and put them in different places if your filing system is iffy. OPM had NO record of my payment and I was very glad that I had a copy in my retirement folder. We are still waiting for acknowledgement from OPM.

  AlmostReady Posted September 12, 2008 9:37 AM
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  Tammy, I am 52 years old have 6 years military service and was hired in March of 1982. I have not paid my deposit and have 28 quarters with SS. I want to pay the deposit in case I work to earn the additional 12 quarters to not effect my SS at 62. I wanted to clarify the comment above in this article: "Employees who retired before turning 62 who are not eligible for Social Security at 62 continue to receive credit for post-1956 military service, even if they become entitled to Social Security at a later date and a military deposit was not made." So if I retire under CSRS in 3 years and do not pay back my deposit and do not earn the additional 12 quarters by 62 AND THEN earn the additional 12 quarters AFTER that time;I can collect full SS with no WEP?

  Tom.. Posted September 12, 2008 9:11 AM
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  Most responsible people accept personal responsibility throughout their lives. Blaming others for your mistakes will not suffice. Stay informed and make intelligent decisions. YOU and ONLY YOU can protect YOU from harm. Do not ever depend wholly or partially on others to keep you safe. Assume that there are bad or ignorant people in the real world and protect yourselves. Not everybody is your trusted friend.

  Lacy Posted September 12, 2008 9:10 AM
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  I have already bought back my 4 years of active duty, in June of 2010 I will be 55 with over 30 years service, my social security statement states I have 30 credits and need 10 more to be eligible, if I stay healthy I will probably work somewhere after retirement to earn the credits needed, was it a good move to buy the time back?

  theodore w. liberaski Posted September 12, 2008 8:32 AM
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  I left gov in 1993 to finally finish my degree as my career was stagnant. I withdrew my retirement and figured I would just have less money when I would return (1995). I returned and then find out not only did I lose the small amount of money--I lost 10 years of creditable service. No one had every told me about losing years as well as the funds. It just seems totally unjust to lose 10 years. Should I have known? Perhaps, but shouldn't someone have explained this to me? Does the agency have some blame for this?! There should be some type of exception or waiver in this. I left in order to be more valuable and skilled and end up punished beyond reasonable I think. I have had no break in service since returning to the gov in 1995.

  June Helligrath Posted September 12, 2008 7:28 AM
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  I feel really sorry for newer employees. Some of this stuff is hopelessly complicated & there is just no help for them. All of our HR was centralized in HQ, including all of the Personnel files that got totally messed up. After that, HR got contracted out. You can't get any help anywhere & no one knows anything anymore. If you don't know the questions to ask how the heck are you supposed to find the info online?!? Thankfully, I am out of her in a year or so!

  ritgar Posted September 12, 2008 5:19 AM