Retirement and End of the Year Meeting

End of the Year Meeting: Oct. 9, 2009 (a change from Oct. 7, 2009) in the Pintler Room, 8am, be there or be square.

Recently there was a tutorial session on retirement held at the AFD, please peruse the information. Below is Donna's response to some of the questions that were asked during the session. She has also graciously left her contact information at the bottom of this page.


Here is the link to the ASC-HCM, Benefits & Retirement, Law Enforcement/Firefighter site so folks can dig around and find interesting and new information that may or may not answer all the questions! This link takes folks directly to FF/LE information but if you back it out to "benefits" on the link (delete the "/le_ff.php"), you can see more information on other benefit programs that are not specific to FF/LE (i.e. Insurance, Flexible Spending Account, Military Svc, Life Events, Retirement, Unemployment and the Latest News on Benefits/Retirement from HCM). Here is a link to OPM's life insurence plan.

Also, the question came up about LWOP and how it works, so I've included the information on this issue from the ASC-HCM website for reference. Basically, 1) LWOP is cumulative in a calendar year even if not used at the same time, 2) your SCD date is not affected if you use 6 months or less cumulative LWOP in a calendar year 3) the SCD is affected one for one for every day in excess of 6 months LWOP used in a calendar year and 4) there is no deposit required for this LWOP service credit. This does not apply to LWOP used for military or peace corps and under OWCP purposes....those rules are different but I didn't include them as it didn't come up in the discussion.
More Leave Without Pay Information from ASC-HCM:
"Creditable Service for Retirement If you take a total of 6 months or less of LWOP in a calendar year, the time is creditable for retirement eligibility
and computation. It doesn't matter when during the year the leave is taken. The total amount taken in the year is added together. If you take more than 6 months of LWOP, the LWOP taken beyond 6 months is not creditable for retirement. You do not have to pay anything into the retirement fund in order to receive this credit -- it is free credit (UNLESS you are on leave for military service or Peace Corps volunteer).
All LWOP taken while in receipt of OWCP is creditable if you return to work as an employee (not a re-employed annuitant)."

Hope this helps folks with some of the questions.......I've still got a couple more that I need to do some research on and will get those answers out to you ASAP. Thanks again for the great discussion and as always, feel free to contact me with any questions or problems! Have a great weekend! ~donna

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Donna Haywood Address: MTDC
R1-Fire, Aviation & Air Attn: Donna-FF/LEI
5785 W. Broadway
Missoula, MT 59808

work phone: 329-3985
email: dlhaywood@fs.fed.us