5 U.S.C. § 5562 — Pay and allowances; continuance while in a missing status; limitations

(a) An employee in a missing status is entitled, for the time the employee is in that status, to receive or have credited to the employee’s account the same pay and allowances to which the employee was entitled when that period began or may become entitled thereafter. Despite any other law, an employee in a missing status on or after January 1, 1965, is entitled— (1) to payment for annual leave that accrued to the employee’s account on or after January 1, 1965, but was forfeited under section 6304 of this title because the employee could not use it because of the missing status; or (2) to have all that leave restored and credited to a separate leave account under section 6304(d)(2) of this title. The employee must choose in writing between payment under paragraph (1) and credit under paragraph (2). The employee must make that choice within 90 days after December 14, 1973, or within 90 days after the missing status ends, whichever period ends later. Payment under paragraph (1) must use the employee’s basic pay rate in effect when the leave was forfeited. (b) The entitlement to pay and allowances under subsection (a) ends on the date of— (1) the head of the agency concerned receiving evidence that the employee is dead; or (2) a death prescribed or determined under section 5565 of this title. The entitlement does not end— (A) when the employee’s term of service or employment expires while the employee is in a missing status; or (B) before the dates specified in paragraphs (1) and (2) of this subsection if the employee dies while in a missing status. (c) An employee who is officially determined to have been absent from the employee’s post of duty without authority owes the United States the amounts paid or credited to the employee’s account under subsection (a) for the period of the absence. (d) If an employee in a missing status remains in that status under section 5565 of this title, the employee continues to be entitled to have pay and allowances credited under subsection (a).