Retirement Benefits

An agency calculates a lump-sum payment by multiplying the number of hours of accumulated leave carried forward from prior leave years. Image: bangoland/Shutterstock.com

If a federal employee dies and no survivor annuity is payable based on his/her death—commonly, meaning someone with no spouse or children young enough to qualify for survivors benefits—the retirement contributions to the deceased person’s credit in the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund, plus applicable interest, are payable.

If a lump sum benefit is payable, it is paid to the first person eligible under the following order of precedence:

• beneficiary designated by the deceased in writing which is signed and witnessed and is received at his/her employing agency (or OPM if the deceased was a retiree or a separated employee) prior to death;

• spouse of the deceased;

• children of the deceased (or descendants of deceased children);

• parents of the deceased;

• executor or administrator of the deceased person’s estate; then

• next of kin of the deceased according to the laws in the deceased person’s state of domicile.

Lump Payment for Annual Federal Leave:
A lump-sum payment for unused annual leave is payable to employees who separate from federal service for retirement or other reasons, or who separate for entry into active duty in the armed forces. Generally, a lump-sum payment will equal the pay the employee would have received had he or she remained employed until expiration of the period covered by the annual leave.

An agency calculates a lump-sum payment by multiplying the number of hours of accumulated leave carried forward from prior leave years (most federal employees can carry no more than 30 days of accumulated annual leave from one leave year to the next; special rules apply to certain categories) and any unused annual leave accrued in the current leave year by the employee’s applicable hourly rate of pay, plus other types of pay the employee would have received while on annual leave. Allowances for the purpose of retaining a federal employee in government service (for example, retention allowances and physicians comparability allowances) are excluded.

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