Retirement Planning

I believe the VA HR person is giving you correct information.

In general your civilian time in service credits continue to build while in LWOP status except under certain conditions. In effect what you are being told is that you are already being given civilian retirement time credit for the LWOP dates (like you were at work) and so to give you credit again would be to double-dip.

I think the only way you could prevail would be to document that your service computation date for retirement is less than your time of employment - and to show the difference was the dates for which you performed Reserve duty.

It's not about if you were in paid status (annual leave) or LWOP status, it's about accruing the time - and you can't accrue two days credit for one day of work. You do need to verify that your service computation date for retirement matches your Federal career and that the LWOP time is counted.

Weekend drills don't count (see first bullet under 2 below). The original poster seems to be covered by the note at the end. Here is the information from the CSRS/FERS Handbook:

E. Service in the Military Reserves

1. Inactive service in the various reserve components of the branches of the uniformed services listed in section 22A2.1-2, paragraph A, is not creditable for CSRS purposes even though such inactive periods may be counted toward certain types of military retirement under specific provisions of the applicable military retirement law.

2. Active service in the various reserve components of the branches of the uniformed services listed in section 22A2.1-2, paragraph A, is creditable for CSRS purposes. That is, service in any of the reserve corps of the armed forces is creditable when an individual is called to active duty, and for the active duty period only.

• Service during Weekly or Biweekly Training Periods
Members of certain reserve components attend weekly or biweekly reserve duty training sessions for which a reservist receives pay but not allowances. These weekly or biweekly training sessions are reserve duty--the reservist is not called to active duty--and therefore, they are not creditable for CSRS purposes.

• Service during Annual 15-day Training Periods
While the weekly and biweekly training sessions are reserve duty and not creditable, the annual 15-day training camp or cruise which reservists are called upon to attend (and for which they receive pay and allowances) is active duty and, therefore, creditable for CSRS purposes.

NOTE: When an employee performs active military service with a reserve unit during a period in which he or she is on military leave (or furlough) from a civilian position, the period is credited as civilian, not military service. (See section 22A6.1-2.)

I work with many former military members (including Reservists). One guy just went through this procedure. Have you been to this page on the DFAS site where they tell you exactly how to do the buyback? https://www.dfas.mil/civ...taryservicedeposits.html

Follow the procedure listed exactly. You should use the Estimator on the DFAS page linked above to give you an idea of what you will owe. I don't recall my co-worker complaining about the LWOP-US issue, and he was called up a couple of times while he was a Reservist.

I recently went through this process. I was able to purchase FERS service credit towards retirement eligibility based on military duty which took place *prior to* me becoming a federal civil servant. That's the key.

I was able to purchase day-for-day credit for prior active duty, and day-for-day credit for reserve time while I was on any sort of orders. Weekend drill does NOT count. Again, the key take home message is that you can only purchase credit for duty which took place *prior to* becoming a federal civil servant.

I was recalled to active duty for one year after I had become a federal civil servant, gone that entire time on LWOP-US status and covered by USERRA. I did have to make a contribution to FERS retirement account, but it had no effect on my civil service retirement Service Computation Date.