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Current Pension Topics
E.W. A.: None. The benefits afforded under the Deferred Compensation Plan (DCP) of the City of New York are separate and distinct from the benefits you are accruing under Social Security. Participation in the DCP has no impact on your future Social Security benefit. *** Q.: During the 1970s, I worked three years in a CETA-funded position. I now work for the City of New York and would like to purchase the CETA time, if possible. Please inform me how I can do this. V.S. A.: I do not know if a CETA-funded position is eligible for prior service purchase. A sure way to find out is to apply. I advise you to call the New York City Employees' Retirement System and ask them to furnish you with the appropriate Buy-Back form. Upon receiving the signed and completed form, NYCERS will investigate and inform you as to whether or not your CETA time is eligible for purchase. Please let me know how you make out. *** Q.: I participate in the Federal Thrift Savings Plan (TSP). I also work for the City of New York, which offers a 457(b) plan. Am I allowed to contribute to both plans? J.F. A.: Yes you are. But your combined contribution to both plans must not exceed $15,500 for 2008. So if you contribute $10,000 to the TSP, you may not contribute more than $5,500 to the city's 457(b) Plan. This is called "aggregation." To be exempt from this combined (aggregation) limit of $15,500, do not contribute to the TSP. You will then be free to contribute up to $15,500 to each of the city's two Deferred Compensation Plans: the 457(b) Plan and the 401(k) Plan, for a combined limit of $31,000 for 2008. *** Q.: I am a Tier 4 member of the Teachers' Retirement System of the City of New York. I am 59 years old and have 27 years of service. Should I opt into the new 55/25 Plan? A.: Yes. If you do not, you will have to work three more years under Tier 4 in order to retire on an unreduced retirement allowance (62/30). If you opt into the new 55/25 Plan, you will be able to retire as early as July 1, 2008 on an unreduced retirement allowance. Non-UFT Members need not apply! The United Federation of Teachers in the March 4 edition of the New York Teacher stated regarding the new 55/25 law: "All active (currently on the payroll) UFT-represented DOE employees who were TRS members in Tiers II, III, and IV on Feb. 27, 2008, the enactment date of the new legislation, are eligible. So, too, are active DOE employees who were BERS members in Tiers II, III and IV on Feb. 27, 2008, in the following UFT-represented titles: all nurse and therapist titles, substitute vocational assistants, all non-annualized adult education titles, directors and assistant directors of drug and alcohol programs, sign language interpreters, all military science instructor titles, and all education officer and analyst titles. Employees of certain eligible charter schools may also opt-in if they are active members of TRS." I find it astonishing that a large segment of the active membership of the TRS are not eligible to join the new plan. Most notable are the supervisors and administrators of the Department of Education, as well as the teaching staff at the City University. How bizarre! Why did the unions representing these groups allow the new 55/25 Plan to be for UFT members only?
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