PhD/PsyD VA Retirement Benefits for Interns and Postdocs

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Margo Fargo

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Advanced clinical psych Ph.D. student here. I worked in federal service before attending grad school, and I am planning to do internship and postdoc at a VA. I have a few retirement-related questions, for those who have trained/worked there and are benefits savvy:

1) Can internship/postdoc income be contributed to TSP if I have an existing account?
2) Does this time count toward retirement (e.g., FERS)?

I understand that being a VA intern/postdoc is technically time working as a federal employee, but I'm not sure if there are special rules because these are temporary training positions. I'm having trouble finding this info elsewhere.

Thanks in advance.

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My understanding is limited only to those folks without prior VA experience/a prior TSP account, which is:

1) No, I don't believe you're able to contribute to TSP
2) No, time does not count toward FERS, as no FERS deductions are take out

I believe it has something to do with the type of appointment (i.e., time-limited/non-permanent), and I don't know if HR would be able to work around that even with prior VA service.

The time on internship/postdoc will count toward the rate at which you accumulate annual leave, though. And any leave you accumulate while on internship/postdoc can be transferred if you accept a permanent VA position. Leave transfer might be a bit more complicated for interns than postdocs, though, and might take a bit more convincing of HR to have them do so. I just had mine paid out from internship (and lost the SL), but transferring from postdoc to employment was relatively smooth.
 
My understanding is limited only to those folks without prior VA experience/a prior TSP account, which is:

1) No, I don't believe you're able to contribute to TSP
2) No, time does not count toward FERS, as no FERS deductions are take out

I believe it has something to do with the type of appointment (i.e., time-limited/non-permanent), and I don't know if HR would be able to work around that even with prior VA service.

The time on internship/postdoc will count toward the rate at which you accumulate annual leave, though. And any leave you accumulate while on internship/postdoc can be transferred if you accept a permanent VA position. Leave transfer might be a bit more complicated for interns than postdocs, though, and might take a bit more convincing of HR to have them do so. I just had mine paid out from internship (and lost the SL), but transferring from postdoc to employment was relatively smooth.

Thank you for the quick reply. The FERS/TSP thing is a bummer and doesn't entirely make sense to me, though it is consistent with my bizarre and frustrating experiences with VA HR (though, as they say, if you've seen one VA, you've seen one VA, so my experiences may not generalize to all of VA HR). It very well may be part of a larger federal policy.

I'm glad to know that the time will count in terms of leave accrual; I'm already at 6 hours/pay period, so hopefully that will be my rate at the start of internship.
 
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Thank you for the quick reply. The FERS/TSP thing is a bummer and doesn't entirely make sense to me, though it is consistent with my bizarre and frustrating experiences with VA HR (though, as they say, if you've seen one VA, you've seen one VA, so my experiences may not generalize to all of VA HR). It very well may be part of a larger federal policy.

I'm glad to know that the time will count in terms of leave accrual; I'm already at 6 hours/pay period, so hopefully that will be my rate at the start of internship.

Yep, this is federal policy that is guided by your classification under Title 5/38/hybrid employee status.
 
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