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This section explains the four types of early retirement benefits and the rules that apply to each. If you qualify for PEER or the Rule of 84 or have recent coverage, your benefit is higher. You must be retired from employment to receive early retirement benefits.
Topics Below
Types of Early Retirement Benefits
Retirement From Employment
Early Retirement Benefit Amount
Types of Early Retirement Benefits
Your Plan offers four types of early retirement
benefits for vested participants who retire before their normal retirement
age (age 65):
- Early retirement benefits under a PEER program.
- Early retirement benefits under the Rule of 84.
- Early retirement benefits with recent coverage.
- Early retirement benefits without recent coverage.
The eligibility requirements for the four types of benefits are similar in many ways. But the date you choose as your pension effective date and your monthly benefit amount may vary depending on which early retirement benefit you receive. Since most of these early retirement benefits are only available to participants with recent coverage at retirement, check Recent Coverage for more information.
All four types of early retirement benefits are listed below. To learn more, click below on the type you are interested:
Early Retirement Under PEER
Early Retirement Under the Rule of 84
Early Retirement With Recent Coverage
Early Retirement Without Recent Coverage
Or click here to view a summary of these four types of early retirement benefits available to vested participants. It briefly describes the eligibility requirements, earliest retirement date and benefit amount for each type.
Retirement From Employment
In addition to meeting all of the eligibility requirements for an early retirement benefit, you must be considered retired from employment before you can begin receiving early retirement benefits.
Remember, early retirement means you are retiring before age 65. Different rules apply if you are taking normal retirement or disability retirement.
To be considered retired from employment for early retirement benefits:
- You must stop working in covered employment for all covered employers under the Plan, and
- You must stop working in any kind of employment for the employer who was your most recent covered employer under the Plan, and
- You must intend to retire permanently and your employer must certify that you are no longer employed.
You are not considered to have retired from employment just because you transfer from covered employment to employment in a non-covered job classification with the same employer. Nor are you considered retired from employment just because your employer stops being a covered employer under the Plan.
For purposes of these rules, affiliated corporations and unincorporated businesses under common ownership are considered to be the same employer. For example, if you leave covered employment and go to work for a subsidiary corporation of the same employer, you are not considered "retired from employment" and you cannot have your early retirement benefit begin.
These retirement rules do not mean that you can never return to covered employment after you retire. However, if you return to work for the same employer for any number of hours within six months after you stop working, Plan rules assume you did not intend to retire permanently. Your benefits are temporarily suspended while you provide proof that you really did intend to retire on a permanent basis.
If you do not provide satisfactory proof, then your early retirement benefit is canceled. This means you must repay any early retirement benefits you already received.
If you return to work for the same employer after six months, Plan rules assume that you intended to retire permanently at the time you stopped working, unless the Pension Trust receives satisfactory proof that:
- When you left employment, you did intend to return to work, and
- Your main reason for leaving was to qualify for Plan benefits.
Once you retire from employment before age 65, you forfeit or lose your right to receive your retirement benefit payment for any calendar month when you work in suspendible employment and the hours you work equal or exceed the applicable hours limit. These rules only apply up to age 65. Click here for more information about suspendible employment.
Early Retirement Benefit Amount
No matter which type of early retirement benefit you receive, the amount is always based on your normal retirement benefit. Remember, your normal retirement benefit is the total of:
- Your five-year average benefit for your covered employment before 1987 (see Five-Year Average Benefit), and
- Your contribution account benefit for covered employment in 1987 and later (see Contribution Account Benefit).
Your early retirement benefit is calculated by multiplying your normal retirement benefit by your early retirement factor. The factor is based on your exact age on your pension effective date and the type of early retirement benefit you are eligible to receive.
The PEER programs let you retire early with unreduced benefits at any age after you are eligible. If you have recent coverage, you can retire early with unreduced benefits at age 62 or later.
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