Eligibility for severance pay.

(a) To be eligible for severance pay, an employee must: (1) Be serving under a qualifying appointment; (2) Have completed at least 12 months of continuous service, as described in § 550.705; and (3) Be removed from Federal service by involuntary separation. (b) An employee is not eligible for severance pay if he or she: (1) Is serving under a nonqualifying appointment; (2) Declines a reasonable offer; (3) Is serving under a qualifying appointment in an agency scheduled by law or Executive order to be terminated within 1 year after the date of the appointment, unless on the date of separation, the agency's termination has been postponed to a date more than 1 year after the date of the appointment, or the appointment is effected within 3 calendar days after separation from a qualifying appointment; (4) Is receiving injury compensation under subchapter I of chapter 81 of title 5, United States Code, unless the compensation is being received concurrently with pay or is the result of someone else's death; (5) Is eligible upon separation for an immediate annuity from a Federal civilian retirement system or from the uniformed services. Such an employee is ineligible even if all or part of the annuity is offset by payments from a non-Federal retirement system the employee elected instead of Federal civilian retirement benefits or disability benefits received from the Department of Veterans Affairs; or (6) Occupies a position in Schedule Policy/Career of the excepted service and his or her agency identifies unacceptable performance or misconduct as the basis for separation in a written notice to the employee. [55 FR 6593, Feb. 26, 1990, as amended by E.O. 14410, 91 FR 34894, June 10, 2026]