Military Careers, Retirement - Marine Corps Times

Points

Every reservist earns points toward retirement. The final amount of points accrued during a career will have a great impact on your retirement pay. All points earned while on active duty, up to 365 per year (366 in a leap year), count toward retirement.

By law, there is a cap on the amount of inactive duty points earned that may be credited to your retirement total. For points earned before Sept. 23, 1996, the cap was 60 points. After that date, the cap was raised to 75 inactive points during a retirement year. This is referred to as the 60- or 75-point rule.

As of Oct. 30, 2000, individuals can earn up to 90 inactive duty points toward retirement in any retirement/retention year (as opposed to a fiscal year).

Military funeral honors are excluded from the maximum inactive points allowed.

Leave-and-earnings statements, correspondence course information and other documents can prove service or work that counts for retirement points. Orders are not proof of points earned.

Each service notifies members annually of their total number of points. Once again, if your Reserve Personnel Center has not been advised of your current address, you will not receive the statement.

If there is a problem, it can be solved by providing documentation of your service record or personnel files. Individual service members have primary responsibility for their personnel records.

Accrual. Points can be accrued in the following ways:

• One point for each day served on active duty in any status to a maximum of 365 per year (366 in a leap year).

• One point for every unit training assembly or drill. Reservists normally get four or five points for a reserve weekend, depending on when it starts (i.e, Friday night or Saturday morning.) Two points are the maximum for any calendar day.

• One point for each day for military funeral honors.

• One point is given for every three hours of nonresident instruction or correspondence courses that are documented as successfully completed.

• Fifteen points are given each year as “membership points” to each reservist for being in a reserve status.

Qualifying year. The day you enter reserve status is considered your anniversary date and retirement year. From that point on, you must accrue a minimum of 50 retirement points in a retirement year in order to have a “qualifying year” toward retirement.

As long as you do not have a break in service, this anniversary date will remain the same even if you go from active to inactive status and back. Once a break occurs, your anniversary date is the day you sign up again.

Once reservists reach 20 or more qualifying years, they have three options:

• Remain in the Ready Reserve. If qualified and able to stay in an active drill status, a reservist can continue to drill for pay and points. This will raise the total amount of retirement pay by accumulating more points, increase the possibility for promotion and give more total time in service for longevity pay raises.

• Transfer to the Retired Reserve. By requesting transfer to the Retired Reserve, a member enters a status in which retirement points no longer can be accumulated. Time in the Retired Reserve counts toward longevity service for retired pay.

In the event of full mobilization, retired reservists can be recalled to active duty. Such a recall would allow reservists to accumulate more points for retirement. While in the Retired Reserve, members have the same rights and entitlements that they had as drilling reservists.

• Request discharge from the reserve components. By doing this, retired reservists are no longer subject to any kind of recall or mobilization. From their time of discharge until they start collecting benefits at age 60, however, they will be unable to increase their benefits in any way. At age 60, they will have access to base/post exchanges and unlimited commissary visits.

Non-qualifying year. A non-qualifying year (one in which a reservist does not earn at least 50 points) counts toward total time in service, but not retirement. Points earned in a non-qualifying year also count toward the final total. Points cannot be carried from year to year in order to claim a qualifying year.

Status. You do not have to be in an active, drilling or paid status with a reserve unit to earn points. Reservists in many categories can earn points and gain qualifying years toward retirement. These include: Participating Individual Ready Reserve, Individual Mobilization Augmentees, Navy Volunteer Training Units and Standby Reserve-Active Status List.