Military Benefits Information for Employees Called to Active Duty

Military Leave Information  (An OPM site)

Federal Employee Health Benefits (FEHB):

For employees called for 30 or more days under certain conditions:

• Employees in a non-pay status while on military active duty can keep their FEHB coverage for up to 24 months.  

• Our policy covers employees who are in a non-pay status and on military active duty from 31 days to 24 months. During the first 24 months of non-pay status, the Agency will pay 100% (both employee and Government share) of the cost of FEHB premiums for each employee affected.

• The USERRA Act restricts the time that an employee can have FEHB while in a non-pay status to 24 months.  Employees, who might be called to military active duty in excess of 24 months, should be advised that at the end of 24 months of LWOP, their FEHB coverage will terminate.  Once they return to active Federal service, they may enroll in an FEHB plan within 60 days of returning to Federal service.

Federal Employees Group Life Insurance (FEGLI):

• Employees in a non-pay status while on military active duty can keep their FEGLI coverage for up to 12 months.  This coverage is free.  At the end of the 12 months they receive a free 31-day extension of coverage and have the right to convert to a non-group policy. 

  • There will be no exceptions to this policy.

  • When an employee who has been on military active duty returns to active Federal service, he/she gets back whatever types of life insurance they had before going into the non-pay status.

Thrift Savings Plan (TSP):

The Uniformed Services are also eligible to participate in the TSP while on active duty.  Reservists who are called up to active duty will be treated as full-time military and will be eligible to contribute as military.  Those Federal civilian employees who are called to military active duty and already have a TSP account, will have to apply to contribute into the TSP through the Uniformed Services.  The two accounts will be separate and distinct.

Provisions for Contribution into the TSP for Uniformed Services are:

• Elections can be made at any time during the year.

• Participants can contribute as little as 1 percent or as much as $15,000.00.

• Uniformed Service members can also contribute from 1 to 100 percent of any incentive pay or special pay (including bonus pay).

  • The total contributions cannot exceed $15,000.00, which is the limit established by the Internal Revenue Code.

• While a member of the uniformed services, the primary TSP contact is the branch of service he/she serves in.

• The law allows for the Secretary responsible for the branch of service to designate critical specialties for matching contributions.  The branch of service will need to advise individuals if they are in a critical specialty and eligible to receive matching contributions.  To date, none had been designated.

• Uniformed Services accounts are maintained separately from the civilian TSP account.  Contributions to the uniformed services account may be made only from uniformed services pay.

  • If someone continues to contribute to both a civilian and a uniformed services account, the sum of the contributions cannot exceed the Internal Revenue Code contributions limit within the same calendar year.

• Once separated from either the uniformed services or Federal civilian service, TSP accounts can be combined by contacting the TSP record keeper.  The service or agency must notify the TSP that the employee separated from service before combining the accounts.

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