Severance Pay Eligibility & Estimates

According to US Code Title V Part III, Subpart D Chapter 55 Subchapter IX, Severance Pay is an entitlement for some employees upon involuntary separation from their government position which may occur during a Reduction in Force (RIF). The question is who qualifies and how much severance pay are they entitled to? Will I be entitled to severance pay if I do not take a potential second Deferred Resignation Program (DRP), Voluntary Early Retirement (VERA), or a Voluntary Separation Incentive Pay  (VSIP) offer and then I get “RIFed”?

In order to qualify for severance pay, you must be separated from Federal service after having served twelve months in a non-time-limited role during a reduction-in-force. You also must not be under an appointment with a “definite time limitation” – i.e. Term employees are not eligible. However, there is a caveat. If you were “appointed for full-time employment without a break in service of more than three days following service under an appointment without time limitation” then you are eligible for severance. This means that employees who were career-conditional, probationary when working in the Excepted service, or Career-permanent employees who took a Term role at Goddard would be eligible for severance under Title V.

Employees receive severance at a rate of one week of their current rate of pay per year of employment up to ten years, then two weeks of pay per year for years thereafter. This includes time serving in the military if it interrupts federal civilian service. There is also an adjustment which increases the severance amount for employees  over 40 years of age.
 
Here are some additional resources for determining your own eligibility and estimating your severance pay amount:

1. View OPM’s Severance Pay Fact Sheet
   
2. View OPM’s Severance Pay Estimate Worksheet
3. View  Your  Employee Benefits Statement:

• Log into https://www.employeeexpress.gov/
• Click “Federal Employee Benefits Statement” listed under  “Miscellaneous” on the left side of the screen.
• Click “Continue” to open your statement.
• Scroll down to Section L to view your severance pay estimate.
• To download and save this document as a PDF: Click “View as PDF” at the top of the page. Then save the  file to your computer.

When considering potential voluntary options to leave the civil service against the risk of a RIF, there are aspects to weigh - personal financial situation, future career, and specific terms of the offer. We encourage you to carefully read any fine print associated with the specific offer before making a decision.

Update 6/11/25: This post has been updated to correct that military service only counts towards severance pay if it interrupts federal service and not in other cases. Please see clarification on pg. 9 of Severance Pay FAQs.