The Unofficial SMART Scholarship Forum

I left civilian service after my commitment and with less than five years of service. Is there any benefit to leaving my contributions in FERS?

OPM doesn't give any:
"Leave your money in the retirement fund if you believe you may return to the Federal Government. You may apply for a refund at any time after separation." (https://hr.nih.gov/benefits/retirement/ ... retirement)

From my perspective, this does not give any reason to leave the funds. Is there something else I should know? I'm particularly interested to if leaving these funds in FERS would benefit me at all if I did return to civilian service at some point. For example, would leaving the funds in FERS allow me to apply the years of service (even though less than 5) toward the minimum years for civilian retirement?

Thanks in advance!

Yes, if you return to government service and you did not withdraw the funds, the time counts towards FERS civilian retirement.

If you instead choose to withdraw the funds, fedweek says you can repay them with interest later to restore civilian time served after you return to government service, so that's another option.
https://www.fedweek.com/ask/federal-ret ... csrs-fers/

Perfect! Thanks so much for the response, and the link. Just what I needed.