FERS Pension and Fed Clerkships

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DH clerked for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit about 15 years ago. He's now a federal employee, and the clerkship DOES count toward his years of service.

(I'm not a federal employee myself, but I do the household finances. I called some office years ago to inquire, and was told "yes" the clerkship counts. I double-checked by looking at his SCD - service computation date. That reflects the time spent as a law clerk for the fed judiciary.)

The SCD on your SF-50 is not necessarily what is used for FERS. You have a SCD-Leave which is what is on the SF-50. That will include term appointments. You also have a SCD-Retirement, which does not show on your SF-50.

This link confirms that term appointments (i.e. most clerkships) don't count toward your years of service: https://www.opm.gov/retirement-services/fers-information/creditable-service/

I know this because I was a career law clerk for years and explained the ins and outs of HR issues to our term clerks. I also spent 3 years as a term clerk and sadly those years don't count for retirement purposes.

This is correct, it counts toward your SCD for leave but not retirement, because retirement deductions were not taken out of your paycheck. I have an 18 month difference between my SCD that is on my 50 and my retirement SCD, due to six month internship and one year clerkship. Your retirement SCD may be available online - I have moved between agencies, and don't think it is on USDA Employee Personal Page, but think it was listed in Employee Express when I was on that system.

I'm the PP above whose DH clerked for the 9th Circuit. I don't know if this matters, but I checked my DH's Benefits Statement on the USDA NFC web site, and it says that his Leave SCD is the same as his Retirement SCD. It seems like his clerkship still counts because the SCD otherwise would be earlier than he joined the regular federal government (as opposed to a temp position). I'm not sure why though?

I clerked at a federal district court about a decade and a half ago. Our judge had us on the leave act, so that year counted towards my leave SCD (for computing hours of leave you get per pp) We were NOT contributing to retirement/FERS, so that year did not count for those purposes. I'm not sure if some clerks were under the retirement system or not (much like some clerks are under the leave act and others are not, at least in my anecdotal experience). But I have one SCD for retirement purposes and another for leave accrual purposes because of this.

[Anonymous]

I was a GS law clerk during law school at a different agency and I eventually got this added to my SCD.

[Anonymous]

Does service as a Congressional page count, I had to pay into FERS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was a GS law clerk during law school at a different agency and I eventually got this added to my SCD.

Working as a "law clerk" at an agency (i.e. post-graduation and pre-bar admission) is different than working as a term law clerk for a federal judge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does service as a Congressional page count, I had to pay into FERS?

yes

[Anonymous]

I clerked on the Tax Court. My clerkship year counted for my service computation date (now I only have 2 more years at 4 hours leave) and because I was covered by FERS on 12/31/12 as a clerk I still pay only .8% even though I just rejoined government this year. My sick leave and annual leave all vanished though and I had to restart from 0. I think there is a federal statute or reg about law clerks not being covered unless your judge opts you in. Eternally grateful to my obviously very smart judge.