Learn more about military services and retirement

You should review your Official Personnel Folder (OPF) to make sure there's a record of all of your military and civilian service. If any of the records are missing, your employer should help you document the service and obtain any missing records.

If you have civilian service for which you must pay retirement contributions or repay a refund of contributions in order to receive full FERS or CSRS credit, your employer should tell you about what impact payment or non-payment has on your eligibility and the amount of your retirement benefit.

If you elect to make a payment to receive credit for military service you performed after 1956, you must make that payment before you retire. If you are receiving military retired pay, you should discuss whether or not you must waive the retired pay with the personnel officer at your agency.

Your personnel office can also tell you about receiving credit in your annuity computation for various types of service and about the payments described above, as well as help you with service documentation.

If you're a federal retiree, contact us to check the status of your request. If you're still currently employed by your agency, you should contact your agency's HR office.

Your personnel office will verify with your payroll office that the deposit to give you credit in your annuity for military service you performed after 1956 has been paid, or that arrangements have been made for complete payment before you leave your employer's payroll.

If you are covered by the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS), then you should apply to make a payment by completing Form SF-2803.

If you are covered by the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), then you should apply to make a payment by completing Form SF-3108.

If you are within 6 months of retirement, you should submit your request to make the deposit or redeposit at the same time you submit your application for retirement. You can use a form or letter to do this.

We will notify you of any amounts due so you can decide whether or not to make the payment. We cannot, however, authorize your regular annuity payments until we have your decision about the payment.

If you want to waive your military retired pay to receive credit for military service in the calculation of your retirement benefits, then you should first speak with your agency's HR office to verify if you would need to waive your type of military retired pay or if you fall under statutes that would not preclude you from paying for all periods of service such as military academy time. If you do need to waive your military retirement in order to get CSRS or FERS service credit, then you should write a letter to the Retired Pay Operations Center at least 60 days before your planned retirement.

You can mail your waiver request to:

Defense Finance and Accounting Service
U.S. Military Retirement Pay
P.O. Box 7130
London, KY 40742-7130

Or you can fax your waiver request to request to 1-888-469-6559.

Here is suggested wording for your waiver request:

I [full name and military serial number] hereby waive my military retired pay for Civil Service Retirement/Federal Employees Retirement System purposes effective [the day before your annuity begins.

I hereby authorize the U.S. Office of Personnel Management to withhold from my CSRS or FERS annuity any amount of military retired pay granted beyond the effective date of this waiver due to any delay in receiving or processing this request.

When you become eligible for Social Security, your military service after 1956 will be used in the computation of your Social Security. Unless you paid a deposit prior to retirement for your military service after 1956, it will no longer count toward your retirement benefit. However, if you did pay the deposit, then no adjustment to your retirement benefit is made at age 62. For a FERS retirement, you must pay for this service in order to receive credit towards your FERS benefit.

You may be able to receive retirement credit for active-duty military service after 1956 if you make a payment for that service. You must make the payment before you stop working for the government.

You should ask your local servicing personnel center for help in determining whether to make this payment. They can provide personalized assistance because they have your employment records.