Expert's View

Over the years I’ve had a lot of questions about the term “service computation date” or SCD. Nine times out of 10, it’s with reference to retirement eligibility. In other words, I’m being asked, “When will I have enough years to retire?” The simple answer is this: The service computation date, or SCD, is the date on which you start counting the years of service you need to retire.

The SCD for most employees is the date on which they first enter the service. However, some of you have been on active duty with the armed forces and may be entitled to service credit for that time. If you are one of them and were employed before October 1, 1982, you’ll automatically get credit for it in determining your eligibility to retire. As a result, your SCD will be moved back to an earlier date to reflect that period of service. On the other hand, if you were employed on or after October 1, 1982, you won’t get any credit for it unless you make a deposit. If you do, your SCD will be adjusted accordingly.

Now, if you ever left government and then returned, the time between those two periods of employment won’t count. As a result, your SCD would be moved forward so that the new SCD would only include the time that you were actually employed. The same is true if you took LWOP that exceeded six months in a calendar year. Your SCD would be moved forward the exact number of days, weeks or months needed to create a seamless service credit history.

No matter what you situation is, all you have to do to determine when you will have enough years of service to retire is to start with your SCD and move forward on the calendar until you have the right combination of service and age.