Got a federal RIF notice? What to do in the first 30 days

A reduction-in-force notice is one of the most unsettling letters a federal employee can open. It is formal, dense and written for the record rather than for you, and it usually arrives with little warning about what to do next. If you work in a federal health role, at VA, the Indian Health Service, the Defense Health Agency, HHS or elsewhere, this guide is for you.

It walks through the first 30 days in order: how to read the notice, what to check, which deadlines cannot be missed, and how to protect your pay, your health coverage and your chances of landing another federal job. The rules changed on 2 September 2026, so the date on your notice matters more than it used to. This is general information, not legal advice; your HR office, your union and a federal employment attorney can confirm how it applies to you.

First: which set of rules applies to your notice?

The Office of Personnel Management rewrote the reduction-in-force regulations in 5 CFR part 351 in a final rule published on 3 August 2026, effective 2 September 2026. A companion rule moved RIF appeals from the Merit Systems Protection Board to OPM on the same date.

Some agencies send an earlier warning, such as a Certificate of Expected Separation or a notice that your position is being abolished. Those documents matter, because they can make you eligible for placement programs, but the document that sets out your RIF rights is the specific written notice. Under OPM’s rules you are generally entitled to at least 60 days of specific written notice before the action takes effect. An agency can ask OPM to approve a shorter period, but it can never be less than 30 days.

Days 1 to 3: read the notice line by line

Do not skim it and put it away. Under 5 CFR 351.802, as revised, a standard specific notice must give you enough information to understand the action and how the agency reached it. Check that yours includes each of the following.

• The action being taken, the reason for it, and the effective date.
• Your competitive area and competitive level, which define the pool of positions you were compared against.
• Your veterans’ preference subgroup, your tenure group and subgroup, and your service computation date.
• Your three most recent ratings of record received during the last four years.
• Your relative retention standing and how it was determined, including any offer of assignment to another position, or the reason no offer was available.
• A link to 5 CFR part 351, instructions for inspecting the agency’s RIF records, information on reemployment programs, and your appeal or grievance rights.

Put the notice next to your most recent SF-50, your last three performance appraisals and your DD-214 if you are a veteran. Mismatches are more common than people expect: a missing rating, the wrong service computation date or a veterans’ preference code that does not reflect a disability rating. Your retention standing is fixed on the day you receive the notice, and the agency must correct any error it discovers, so errors are worth raising quickly and in writing.

Some employees are excluded from RIF competition altogether: those serving an initial probationary period, employees on temporary or time-limited appointments of one year or less, excepted service employees serving a trial period, and Schedule C and Schedule G appointees. If you are in one of those groups you should receive a modified notice explaining that you were not ranked on a retention register.

How the 2026 rules rank you

Under the old rules, tenure came first and length of service carried heavy weight. Under the new framework, tenure decides which register you are on, and performance decides your place on it. Competitive service and excepted service employees are placed on separate retention registers and do not compete against each other.

• Performance credit comes from your three most recent ratings of record in the four years before notices were issued: 7 points for a Level 5 rating, 5 for Level 4, 3 for Level 3, and nothing for Level 2 or Level 1.
• Veterans’ preference adds points on top: 5 for a preference eligible with a compensable service-connected disability of 30 percent or more, and 3 for every other preference eligible.
• If totals tie, tenure subgroup I ranks ahead of subgroup II. If they still tie, the earlier service computation date ranks first.
• If you have fewer than three ratings, the agency uses set formulas: with two ratings it averages them for the missing third, with one it triples it, and with none it uses the modal rating for your position’s rating pattern.

Here is how that plays out. Suppose two medical support assistants at the same grade are on the same register. The first has ratings of 5, 4 and 4, for 17 points, and no veterans’ preference. The second has ratings of 4, 3 and 3, for 11 points, plus 5 points as a veteran with a 30 percent disability, for 16. The first employee ranks higher. This is an illustration of the published formula, not a real case.

Week 1: ask to see the records

If you received a specific RIF notice, you and your representative have a right to inspect the completed records used in the action. That includes the full retention register for your competitive level and any other register that could affect your level or your assignment rights, subject to the Privacy Act and the Freedom of Information Act. Agencies must keep RIF registers and records for at least two years after issuing notices.

Make the request in writing and keep a copy. When you have the register, check where you sit, who sits immediately above and below you, and whether the ratings and preference codes shown for you are right. Then ask HR the questions below, by email so there is a record of the answers.

• Which regulations apply to my RIF, and what is the exact effective date?
• Was I offered an assignment? If not, what is the documented reason?
• Which qualification assessment was used to decide whether I could be assigned to a lower-standing employee’s position?
• Am I eligible for severance pay, discontinued service retirement or early retirement, and can you give me an estimate?
• Which placement programs am I eligible for, and what documents do I attach to prove it?
• When will I receive my SF-8 and final SF-50 for an unemployment claim?

Assignment rights: the offer you may receive instead of separation

The new rules replace the old "bump and retreat" system with a single right to assignment. If you are a competitive service employee with a current rating of Level 2 or higher and you are released from your competitive level, the agency must offer you an available position rather than separate or furlough you, provided every condition is met.

• The position is in the same competitive area and has the same type of work schedule as yours.
• It is held by an employee with lower retention standing in the same tenure group.
• It involves no reduction in pay, or the least possible reduction.
• It is no more than three grades below your position, or five grades if you are a preference eligible with a compensable service-connected disability of 30 percent or more.
• You are qualified for it, generally shown through a job-related assessment. A new assessment is not needed if, in the five years before the notice, you held the same or a substantially similar position at the same grade and earned a Level 3 or higher rating for that work.

Excepted service employees are not automatically entitled to assignment rights, although an agency may choose to provide them. That matters in health care: most VA physicians, nurses and physician assistants are appointed under title 38 and sit in the excepted service. Agency-specific statutes can also set different RIF requirements, so if you are in the excepted service, ask HR in writing exactly which procedures apply to you.

If you are placed in a lower-graded job, you may keep your old grade for two years under grade retention, provided you served at least 52 consecutive weeks at a higher grade. Pay retention may apply after that. Be careful before turning an offer down: declining a reasonable offer can end grade retention, can make you ineligible for severance pay, and can affect discontinued service retirement.

Weeks 2 to 4: work out the money

Severance pay is available to employees who have completed at least 12 months of continuous service and are involuntarily separated for reasons other than inefficiency. You are not eligible if you decline a reasonable offer of another position, or if you are eligible for an immediate annuity from a federal retirement system on separation.

OPM’s formula gives one week of basic pay for each full year of creditable service up to 10 years, and two weeks for each full year beyond 10. An age adjustment then adds 2.5 percent of that amount for each full three months you are over age 40. Take a hypothetical employee aged exactly 45 with 12 full years of service: 10 weeks plus 4 weeks gives 14 weeks, and 20 full quarters over 40 adds 50 percent, for 21 weeks of basic pay, paid every two weeks. Nobody can receive more than 52 weeks of severance pay in a lifetime, and payments end if you are reemployed by the federal government; a nonqualifying time-limited appointment suspends them instead.

• Unused annual leave is paid as a lump sum, calculated as if you had stayed on the rolls until the leave ran out, including holidays and any pay raise that takes effect in that period. If you return to federal service before that period ends, you repay the overlapping portion and get the leave back.
• Discontinued service retirement under FERS is open if you are involuntarily separated at age 50 with 20 years of service, or at any age with 25 years, and have not declined a reasonable offer. OPM defines a reasonable offer here as a written offer in your agency and commuting area, no more than two grades or pay levels below your position.
• Your agency may offer early retirement (VERA), with OPM approval, on the same 50 and 20 or 25-year terms.
• A voluntary separation incentive payment, if your agency offers one, is capped at 25,000 dollars and must be repaid in full if you take paid federal work within five years.

Think carefully before taking a buyout or resigning ahead of the RIF date. Placement programs are for people who are separated involuntarily. OPM’s career transition guide says that if you retire or resign with a buyout, you are not entitled to placement assistance, and resigning before the RIF date ends your interagency priority.

Unemployment for former federal civilian workers runs through a program called Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees. The Department of Labor says you generally file with the state where your last official duty station was, under that state’s rules, using the SF-8 and SF-50 your agency gives you on separation. Your state decides the weekly amount and whether severance or leave payments affect it, so file promptly and ask.

Keep your health coverage without a gap

Your Federal Employees Health Benefits coverage does not simply continue. OPM’s Temporary Continuation of Coverage lets separated employees keep FEHB coverage for up to 18 months, but you pay the full premium, both your share and the government’s, plus a 2 percent administrative charge. You have 60 days after separation, or 60 days after receiving the notice, whichever is later, to enroll.

Compare that cost with a HealthCare.gov plan before you decide. Losing job-based coverage qualifies you for a Special Enrollment Period, and HealthCare.gov lets you apply if you expect to lose coverage in the next 60 days or lost it in the past 60. Savings there are based on your expected household income for the year, not on whether you are employed.

• Life insurance under FEGLI continues for a 31-day extension and the right to convert to an individual policy.
• Dental and vision coverage under FEDVIP ends when you leave, with no extension and no conversion.
• A flexible spending account under FSAFEDS ends on separation, so use the balance while you can.
• Long-term care insurance under FLTCIP continues if you keep paying premiums, but you must arrange direct billing.

Use your placement priority: CTAP, ICTAP and the RPL

Three programs in 5 CFR part 330 give displaced employees priority over most outside candidates. OPM describes them in its Employee’s Guide to Career Transition, and the 2026 rule updated them to fit the new tenure framework while keeping the core selection priorities in place.

• CTAP gives you priority for vacancies in your own agency within your local commuting area, from the moment you receive a RIF separation notice or similar certification until you separate. You apply to specific vacancies at or below your grade, with no greater promotion potential, attach your notice as proof, need a current rating of at least Fully Successful, and must be found well qualified.
• The Reemployment Priority List gives former competitive service employees priority when their old agency hires from outside in the same commuting area. You can register once you receive a specific RIF separation notice or a Certificate of Expected Separation, and you must submit the RPL application on or before your RIF separation date. Under 5 CFR 330.208(a), registration lasts two years from the date of RIF separation, for everyone. OPM’s 2017 career transition guide still describes an older one-year period for career-conditional employees, so confirm your period with HR.
• ICTAP gives priority in other agencies in your local commuting area for one year after RIF separation, on similar conditions. It is for competitive service employees, so most excepted service staff, including title 38 clinicians, are not eligible.

If you work for the Department of Defense, including the Defense Health Agency, CTAP selection priority does not apply. DoD uses its own Priority Placement Program instead, and displaced DoD employees can still register for their local RPL and use ICTAP for jobs in other agencies.

Two traps catch people. First, turning down a permanent offer you applied for can end your priority, so do not apply for jobs you would not accept. Second, OPM’s guide says that accepting another position, even a temporary one, before the RIF separation ends your CTAP priority, because you are no longer facing separation.

If you think the RIF was run wrongly: the 30-day appeal clock

If you are separated, demoted or furloughed for more than 30 days by a RIF and your notice was issued on or after 2 September 2026, you may appeal to OPM. The appeal must be filed through the electronic filing system named on OPM’s website within 30 calendar days of the effective date of the action. It counts as on time if it is filed by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on the 30th calendar day after the effective date. Day one is the day after the effective date, and if the last day falls on a weekend or federal holiday, you get until the next workday.

OPM will not generally accept filings by email or post, and a late appeal is dismissed unless you show good cause, which is at OPM’s sole discretion. You carry the burden of proving that the appeal is timely, that OPM has jurisdiction, that the agency failed to follow a RIF statute or regulation, and that the failure actually harmed you. The process is mainly decided on the written record, with a hearing only where OPM finds it necessary.

Your 30-day checklist

• Day 1: note the notice date, the effective date and your 30-day appeal deadline in a calendar you actually use.
• Day 1 to 3: check every line of the notice against your SF-50, appraisals and DD-214.
• Week 1: request the retention register and RIF records in writing; email HR the questions above.
• Week 1: register for CTAP and the RPL, and ask which documents prove eligibility.
• Week 2: ask for a severance estimate and, if you are close to eligibility, a retirement estimate.
• Week 2: price TCC against a HealthCare.gov plan; set a reminder for the 60-day enrollment deadline.
• Weeks 2 to 4: update your federal resume and apply to vacancies where your priority applies.
• Before the effective date: collect your SF-8 and final SF-50 so you can file for unemployment on day one.

Common mistakes that cost people money or priority

• Resigning or taking another job before the RIF date without asking HR how it affects severance, retirement and placement priority.
• Declining an assignment offer on instinct. It can cost severance and grade retention.
• Letting a wrong rating or service date stand because it seems minor. Under the new formula a single rating can change your rank.
• Missing the RPL deadline, which is your RIF separation date, or the 60-day TCC window.
• Waiting for the appeal to finish before job hunting. The two can run side by side.

Questions people ask

Can my agency give me less than 60 days’ notice?

Only with OPM approval, and never less than 30 days. When 50 or more employees in a competitive area are separated, the agency must also notify OPM, the unions, the state dislocated-worker or rapid-response program and local officials, which is why state workforce agencies sometimes contact affected staff.

I am still on probation. Do these rights apply to me?

Employees serving an initial probationary period are excluded from RIF competition and receive a modified notice. OPM’s guidance says a termination for performance or conduct is handled under separate probation rules in 5 CFR part 11, not as a RIF. If you are unsure which kind of action you received, ask HR in writing.

Will a new federal job stop my severance?

Generally yes. Severance payments end if you are reemployed by the federal government; a nonqualifying time-limited appointment suspends them instead. Ask your payroll office before you accept any federal offer, so you know exactly what changes.

Should I appeal even if I am not sure there was an error?

An appeal has to show that the agency broke a RIF rule and that it changed your outcome, so it is worth checking the records first. But the deadline does not wait for you to finish. If you suspect a problem, get advice early from your union or an attorney so a decision can be made inside the 30 days.

Last reviewed Sep 13, 2026. First published Sep 18, 2026. Federal hiring rules change — confirm anything you act on against the agency's own announcement or OPM guidance.