The Department of Defense (DoD) is now set to begin accepting eligible civilian employees into the phased retirement program. Under the program, eligible federal employees approaching retirement are able continue working part time, while beginning retirement. 

Implementation of the Phased Retirement Program has taken longer than expected to implement in the federal government. The program was approved by Congress in July of 2012 and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued implementation rules in 2014. To date less than 100 employees, government wide, are participating.

For DoD, Acting DoD Under Secretary for Personnel and Readiness Peter Levine issued a memorandum on June 21st that describes the policy, responsibilities, and procedures under which eligible employees can apply for and be accepted into the program.

Levine said the DoD program “is designed to assist DoD Components with the transfer of knowledge and continuity of operations on a short-term basis.” The program is voluntary and participation requires the approval of both the employee and an authorized Component official. Components can limit the number of employees as necessary. Levine said.

To be eligible for the program employees must have been in full employment status for the previous three years and be eligible for immediate retirement under either the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) or the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS). Employees subject to mandatory retirement, such as law-enforcement officers, firefighters, air traffic controllers, or nuclear materials couriers are not eligible for DoD’s phased retirement program.

The eligible employee receives income from a combination of part-time salary (50%) and partial annuity payments (50%). The phased retiree also accrues future retirement benefits proportional to the time they work. Phased retirees are expected to spend 20 percent of their time mentoring other employees.

The DoD directive-type memorandum requires DoD Components to have “written criteria in place that will be used to approve or deny applications for phased retirement before approving or denying such applications.” Employees that are eligible for phased retirement will complete Standard Form 3116 “Phased Employment/Phased Retirement Status Elections.”

Applications must be improved in writing and the phased retirement time period must be established in accordance with DD Form 3018 “Phased Retirement Request and Agreement.”

The Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower and Reserve Affairs (ASD(M&RA)) has overall policy responsibility for the DoD program and Component heads have approval authority.