The following is a question submitted by a reader to Federal Times columnist Reg Jones, a charter member of the senior executive service and the resident expert on federal employee retirement issues.
A Fed Times reader asks:
“I worked full time for the Department of Veterans Affairs from 2004 to 2012. I then resigned to work in the private sector. I was reinstated five months later as an intermittent employee from 2012 to 2019. I then was rehired back full time in 2019 to present. During my intermittent years, my SF50 still had FERS and FICA in box 30, and they were still deducting retirement from my paycheck.
Will the time while I was intermittent be counted toward my years of service for retirement? Or did I lose these seven years?”
Reg’s response:
Because retirement deductions were taken from your pay while an intermittent employee, that time will count toward your total years when you retire.
