Banking On A Sick Leave Bank

If Uncle Sam set up a sick leave bank would you open up an account?

Currently feds can and do donate unused annual leave to such banks. But sick leave isn’t part of the deal. And for workers under the FERS retirement system sick leave is a use-it-or-lose-it deal.

Last week a reader named Karen proposed a bank that would give feds under FERS a tax break for donating excess sick leave.

Here’s her idea:

Wham! Did she hit a nerve. Here are some followup comments and suggestions from readers:

“Karen is a FED who actually does make sense. Even if FERS retirees are someday compensated for their sick leave, say, under the Moran plan, giving FEDS the option of donating their sick leave and getting a charitable deduction is a great idea. Kudos to Karen.” John Elliott

“Even though I’m in CSRS within a few months of retirement, a leave donor program accepting sick leave makes good sense. Currently, I can use sick leave to bolster my time in service in monthly increments only. Guess what happens to what’s leftover? I go to the dentist, physician (cough-cough)…whatever, to use it up. Why not make it available to donate, rather than promoting an opportunity for what is basically fraud?” Counting Down in Culpeper

“Karen has a good idea, permitting people to donate about to be lost sick leave and getting a contribution deduction for it (I assume) based on the hourly rate at the time of retirement. I would like to have a menu of choices for unused sick leave. Donate it, pay me for it, or permit me to apply it towards time for pension purposes. Let the consumer decide.

“My dad never had an hour of sick leave as a construction worker. A day missed was a day not paid. He used to tell us, if I can get to my truck, I can get to work. He worked in pain, lost much of his hearing, yet rarely ever took a day off.

“I guess it is in part his example that makes the idea of FERS flu an anathema!

“I wonder if long-service members of Congress will face the FERS use-it-or-lose-it choice? Maybe when enough Congressmen lose a year or more of sick leave credit, they too will take the problem seriously.” Michael H.

“I had another idea on this, but for CSRS employees only. Currently, when determining total service time for annuity computations, you take your service time in years/months/days and add to that your remaining sick leave balance in months/days. In the total you get from that (years/months/days), any days are dropped off per the official “rules”. For example, if you ended up with 32 years, 8 months and 26 days, the 26 days get dropped and are lost. Why not take all those lost days and put them in a sick leave bank for use by those with a legitimate need? In that manner, the donating employees aren’t losing any tangible benefit, and those in need are benefitting. Just a thought.” Bill D., Army

But there is a potential problem as this reader points out:

“Regarding the person who wanted to donate her sick leave and take a charitable contribution – she can’t take a charitable contribution because she has no basis (no cost) in her sick leave. She paid no taxes on it. It would be like trying to take a deduction for her labor working for a charity. Sick leave should not be confused with donating clothes to a charity.” Steve H.

Nearly Useless Factoid

Now that Easter is over with for the year, please know that it wasn’t your imagination: it really WAS early this year. In fact, according to the Daily Mail, it won’t be this early in the year again until 2160. But you don’t have to believe them. You can check the math yourself. Here’s the formula:

((19*t+u-w-(u-(u+8)25)+1)3)+15)mod30)+(32+2*x+2*y-(19*t+u-w- (u-(u+8)25)+1)3)+15)mod30)-z)mod7)-7*(t+11*(19*t+u-w(u- (u+8)25)+1)3)+15)mod30)+22*(32+2*x+2*y-(19*t+u-w-(u- (u+8)25)+1)3)+15)mod30)-g)mod7)+114)31

To reach me: mcausey@federalnewsradio.com

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