What to know for former military now civil service?
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Anonymous
| What, if anything, should my brother be aware of regarding his military service as he joins the civil service? Will any of his time in the military count towards leave accrual or years of service when/if he retires from federal civil service? My brother was active duty military for 11 years with several combat deployments. He joined the national guard right after he got out of active duty, finished his BA, and just got a job with a federal agency. Wahoo! He will of course ask his HR too, but..... Also, I'm posting instead of my brother because I live in the DC area and he doesn't, so he isn't familiar with this fabulous resource. Thanks in advance for any tips! |
Anonymous
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I made a similar move, and my military time was credited for starting at a higher rate of earning leave.
To credit his military time towards retirement he will have to pay a lump sum. It's basically to catch up with what he would have payed had he been contributing towards civil service retirement. There's some not insignificant bureaucracy that goes into making that happen that HR should be able to help him with. I think it starts with getting an estimate of earnings while military. |
Anonymous
| Unless it changed recently, you do NOT have to pay in a lump sum. 4 years ago I bought back my military time and was able to pay over the course of a year. |
Anonymous
My mistake (I'm the one who posted lump sum) - I didn't actually know. I never actually got that far in the process. I should probably go do that now. |
Anonymous
| Would buying back time in any way adversely impact his military retirement? |
Anonymous
there is no "military retirement" for 11 yrs of service. You have to do 20. It's a bad deal for people who spend 11 yrs and get out. BUT, it's a good thing for him to "buy back" his time.... make contributions for those 11 yrs and then have them count toward his civil service retirement. That is definitely the way to go. |
Anonymous
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It's your lucky day because I just went through this process. Here's a lightly edited version of the message from HR is below. Also, technically his active duty time in the guard should count. Practically speaking, I haven't figured out a way to make this happen because you don't get a DD 214 for active duty for training time.
"You may begin the military buy-back process by first obtaining your Military Earnings Statement. To do that, you will need to complete and submit the attached “Estimated Earnings During Military Service” form (RI20-97) to your military DFAS Center. Please note that a copy of your DD-214(s) is required when submitting the RI20-97 to DFAS. For your convenience, the following web link provides a listing of the DFAS Centers for each military branch; http://www.dfas.mil/civilianemployees/customerservice.html#Military. Please submit the RI20-97 along with a copy of your DD-214(s) to the appropriate DFAS branch for which you served." |
Anonymous
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9:23 again. Also, he should know that the probationary time for vets is 1 year instead of 2.
Also, you can buy back your military time with no interest until up to three years from when you became a federal employee. So, if he needs a year to save up some cash he can take it and then buy back his time at that point. He can also pay in installments as noted above. The process for getting credit for leave accrual is different than the retirement buy back process. Basically you have four different service computation dates (SCD). One for leave, one for retirement, one for RIFs and one for something else that I forget. The SCD-L can be adjusted just using his DD 214. |
Anonymous
| With 11 years in, stick it out with the military to get the pension. |
Anonymous
Actually, assuming he had good years with the national guard he might be pretty close to 20. He won't be able to draw the reservist pension until he's in his 60s though. |
Anonymous
You must have stopped reading. He already left the military. |
Anonymous
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Actually, there are a ton of guys getting out at the 11-13 yr range. They make O4 and look at another 6 years of BS to make O5. I personally know 5 men who have done this in last two years.
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Anonymous
| what's the motivation for buying back your military years early? Yes, the longer you delay the more itnerest you have to pay the government on that initial lumpsum. But that is offset by you not really knowing you will retire through FERS until much later in your career |
Anonymous
Everyone we knew stuck it out, including my husband. The health insurance alone was so worth it. 6 years after doing 14 is not that long. My husband was enlisted. At least officers are treated better and earn more. |
Anonymous
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He should really try to consciously shake off military habits that don't fit with the civilian agency's culture. Life as a civilian will be different, even if uncle Sam is still signing the paycheck.
By all means, be the creative leader you were in the service. It is what makes vets such valuable contributors. But dont call anyone ma'am. If the office is business casual, dress business casual. If people manage by consensus, obtain consensus. Sometimes vets hold onto military habits out of pride or a sense of identity, or because they are so ingrained they don't realize they are doing it, but they don't understand that it can send a signal to others (wrongly) that they don't feel the need to"join the team." Everyone has to adapt to new environments, even vets. There are a lot of resources on the web to help with this. Unless he is at DoD. Then it won't be an issue. |