Temporary Early Retirement Authority (TERA) authorized members with over 15, but less than 20 years of total active duty service to apply for early retirement. The opportunity to retire under this TERA program ended in September 2002.
TERA retired pay is initially computed using the length of service retirement formula. It is then multiplied by a reduction factor based on the number of months the retiree is short of 20 years.
Active duty pay x Percent Multiple x Reduction Factor = TERA Retired Pay
TERA gross retired pay is also still rounded down to the nearest dollar.
10 U.S.C. § 1143a as enacted by Public Law 102-484 (Oct. 23, 1992,) allowed members who retired under the Temporary Early Retirement Authority (TERA) to apply certain post-retirement public service employment (with certain approved employers) towards a recomputation of their military retirement pay starting at age 62. Not all employment qualified, and the additional creditable time was limited.
For the employment to be eligible, the law required that the employer be added to a Registry of Public Service and Community service organizations maintained by the Department of Defense. Additionally, if the employer qualified, the time that could be credited was limited to the period the member was employed with that employer between (a) the date of the member’s early retirement and (b) the date that the of member would have reached 20 years of military service had they remained on active duty (this period was called the Enhanced Retirement Qualification Period, or ERQP).
10 U.S.C. § 1143a was repealed by Section 553(a)(1) of Pub. L. 115–232 (Aug. 13, 2018). As a result, effective August 13, 2018, the Secretary of Defense is no longer permitted to add an employer to the Registry of Public Service and Community service organizations.
Page updated November 26, 2024