How to Fill Out and Submit PS Form 2574: USPS Resignation Form

PS Form 2574, Resignation/Transfer from the Postal Service, is the document you complete and give to your supervisor when you voluntarily leave USPS or transfer to another federal agency.¹ The form itself is short. What matters is filling it out with information that matches your personnel record, handing it to the right person, and keeping a signed copy. Once your supervisor accepts it, the resignation is binding, and you have only until close of business on your effective date to take it back.²

Get the Current Version of the Form

Ask your supervisor or local human resources contact for a blank PS Form 2574. The form was revised in April 2023 to add a personal email address field and a dedicated employee signature section, and to remove “pursuing farming” as a listed reason for leaving.¹ Older copies still sitting in break rooms are out of date. If your office does not have the current version, your supervisor can request it from the district Human Resources office or the Human Resources Shared Service Center (HRSSC).

Information the Form Asks For

Before you sit down with the form, pull your most recent Leave and Earnings Statement (LES). Every field on the form should match what appears there. Mismatches between what you write and what the personnel system has on file can disconnect your resignation from your record and delay your final pay.

Your eight-digit Employee Identification Number. This is the same number you use to sign into LiteBlue and phone-based payroll systems, and it appears on your LES.³
Your position title and installation name, written exactly as they appear on your earnings statement rather than an informal version of your job title.
Your effective date, meaning your last day on the job. Ending on the last day of a pay period keeps final wage and health insurance calculations simple.
Your reason for leaving. Whatever you write is coded on your SF-50 with a Nature of Action number. A standard voluntary resignation is coded NOA 317. A resignation that qualifies as involuntary, such as one prompted by a hostile work environment, is coded NOA 312, which can affect eligibility for benefits like discontinued service retirement.⁴
A personal email address (added in the 2023 revision) and a current mailing address. These are how USPS or a gaining agency contacts you after you leave, and how your final W-2 and any lump-sum leave check reaches you.

Check every entry against your LES before signing. A wrong ID number or misspelled installation name is a common source of processing delays.

Submitting the Form

Hand the completed form directly to your immediate supervisor, manager, or whichever official your installation has designated to accept resignations. Do not mail it to HRSSC yourself; your supervisor forwards it. The Employee and Labor Relations Manual asks for at least two weeks’ written notice “when possible,” framing it as an expectation rather than a strict rule.²

Your supervisor signs the form to acknowledge receipt and forwards the original to HRSSC in Greensboro, North Carolina. Ask for a signed, dated copy before you walk away. That copy is your proof that you resigned voluntarily on a specific date, which protects you if a question later arises about whether you abandoned your position.

Changing Your Mind After You Sign

You can withdraw a resignation, but only if you act before close of business on the effective date you chose.² Put the withdrawal in writing. HRSSC accepts withdrawal requests by fax and by mail at HRSSC, ATTN SEPARATIONS, PO Box 970520, Greensboro, NC 27497-0520. Give a copy to your supervisor too, since they are the one who forwarded the original.

After close of business on the effective date, the resignation is final. Management has no discretion to accept a late withdrawal. If you are having second thoughts on your last day, act in the morning, not the evening.

Returning Postal Property

USPS tracks the return of government-issued items on PS Form 337, Clearance Record for Separated Employee, which your supervisor or an eAccess manager signs once your access has been suspended.⁵ Plan to turn in:

Your photo ID badge and any building access cards.
Facility keys and parking permits.
Handheld scanners, arrow keys, vehicle keys, and any other equipment issued to you.
Uniform items, if your supervisor confirms specific pieces must come back.

Do not assume anyone will chase you down for these items. An OIG audit found that managers failed to complete clearance documentation in roughly 90 percent of the separations reviewed, so take the initiative and get a signed receipt for everything you return.⁶ Unreturned property creates a debt. While you are still employed, USPS can offset the value from your pay under the Debt Collection Act; after you leave, it can recover through administrative offset under 31 U.S.C. § 3716 against other federal payments owed to you.⁷

Final Pay and Annual Leave Payout

You are entitled to a lump-sum payment for unused annual leave when you separate. Sick leave is not paid out.⁸ How much annual leave gets paid depends on your category:

Bargaining-unit employees receive a payout for annual leave carried over from the previous year plus current-year accrued leave up to the 440-hour carryover cap. Any current-year hours above 440 must be used before separation or they are lost. Holidays that fall within the terminal leave period are also included for full-time and part-time regular employees.⁹
Non-bargaining-unit (EAS) employees receive a payout for carried-over leave plus all accrued leave for the separation year, including hours above the 560-hour carryover maximum.⁹

The payment generally equals what you would have earned had you stayed on the job through the period your leave covers.⁸ If you return to federal service before that period would have expired, you repay part of the lump sum and get those hours recredited.

Your final regular paycheck may come as a paper check rather than direct deposit, and the leave payout is often processed on a separate cycle. Keep a copy of your last LES, and request SF-1150, Record of Leave Data upon Separation or Transfer, which documents your leave balances if postal records are ever misplaced.¹⁰

Health and Life Insurance

Your Federal Employees Health Benefits coverage ends on the last day of the pay period in which you separate, followed by a free 31-day extension with no enrollment action required. After that, you may elect Temporary Continuation of Coverage for up to 18 months, paying the full premium (both the employee and government shares) plus a 2 percent administrative charge. You have 60 days from loss of coverage or from the date you are notified of TCC eligibility, whichever is later, to enroll.¹¹

Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance continues at no cost for 31 days after separation. Within that same 31-day window you can convert Basic and Optional coverage to an individual private policy at standard commercial rates. Your employing office should give you SF 2819 (Notice of Conversion Privilege) and SF 2821 (Agency Certification of Insurance Status); send both to the Office of Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance before the 31 days run out. If the SF 2821 is slow to arrive, send the SF 2819 on its own and follow up. Do not let the deadline pass while waiting.

Retirement and TSP

Resigning does not automatically forfeit your retirement. With at least five years of creditable civilian service under FERS, you are eligible for a deferred annuity beginning at age 62. With at least ten years of service (including five civilian years), you can start a reduced annuity at your Minimum Retirement Age.¹² If you have fewer than five years of creditable service, you may withdraw your FERS employee contributions, but doing so permanently forfeits any future annuity based on that service.

Your Thrift Savings Plan account stays with you. If your balance is $200 or more, you can leave the money in the TSP after separation and keep adjusting your investment allocations, or roll it into an IRA or a new employer’s 401(k).¹³ What you cannot do after separation is make new employee contributions or take new TSP loans.

If you have an outstanding TSP loan, you have three choices: pay it off in full, set up monthly payments to keep it open, or let it be foreclosed. Foreclosure turns the remaining balance and accrued interest into taxable income for that year, and if you are under 59½ it may trigger an early withdrawal penalty.¹³ Resolving the loan before your last day is the cleanest option.

Sick leave is not cashed out, but if you return to federal service and eventually retire under FERS, your unused sick leave converts into additional service credit that increases your annuity calculation. It does not count toward the minimum service required for retirement eligibility. Holding on to your SF-1150 and final LES protects that balance if you come back to government work later.

1
United States Postal Service. PS Form 2574 Revision: Resignation/Transfer from the Postal Service
2
United States Postal Service. Employee and Labor Relations Manual – 365 Separation
3
United States Postal Service. 2024 Tax Information: Form W-2 Wage and Tax Statement
4
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Guide to Processing Personnel Actions – Chapter 31: Separations by Other than Retirement
5
United States Postal Service. PS Form 337 Revision
6
U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General. U.S. Postal Service Exit Processing
7
United States Postal Service. Employee and Labor Relations Manual – 460 Collection of Postal Debts From Bargaining Unit Employees by Salary Offset
8
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Fact Sheet: Lump-Sum Payments For Annual Leave
9
United States Postal Service. Employee and Labor Relations Manual – 512 Annual Leave
10
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Fact Sheet: Leave Upon Transfer or Separation
11
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Temporary Continuation of Coverage
12
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Types of Retirement
13
Thrift Savings Plan. Leaving the Federal Government