The Western Conference of Teamsters Pension Trust

You can lose Plan benefits if you work in suspendible employment after retirement. Your Plan's suspension of benefit rules (effective January 1, 2003) are explained below. Different rules may apply to your work before 2003. If you have questions about what rules applied before 2003, contact your Area Administrative Office for details.

The suspension of benefits rules apply to your suspendible employment only if you take early retirement. If you take normal retirement, you can work as much as you want in any kind of job without worrying about losing your monthly benefit. If you take disability retirement and then recover enough to return to work, you may lose your entitlement to Social Security Disability Benefits and therefore to Plan disability retirement benefits. Click here for details.

If you take early retirement, once you reach age 65, you can work as much as you want in any kind of job without losing your monthly benefit.

If you are under age 65 and decide to go back to any kind of work after you retire, Plan rules require that you notify your Area Administrative Office in advance. You should do so even if you think your work is not suspendible employment. That way you can find out beforehand if your work may cause you to lose any benefits.

The easiest way to obtain a written confirmation about your work is to call or write your Area Administrative Office to request a "Request for Evaluation of Reemployment" form. Or, if you have Adobe® Acrobat® Reader on your computer, click on the following to download a copy of the Request for Evaluation of Reemployment form.

Downloadable Form (Adobe Acrobat PDF, 213k)

Once you download the form to your computer, you can print it, fill it in and mail it back to an Area Administrative Office. (You cannot send the form via e-mail)

If Plan representatives find out that you are working before age 65, and you have not already reported it, your benefit payments may be suspended while your Area Administrative Office gathers more information—plus you may need to repay any benefit overpayments. Click here for reporting requirements.

Suspendible Employment
Your Plan defines two kinds of suspendible employment:

Covered employment
Non-covered employment

Either kind of suspendible employment (explained below) can trigger a benefit suspension if you are under age 65. Once you turn age 65, the suspension of benefit rules no longer apply beginning with the month that follows your 65th birthday. (Different rules apply to your work before 2003. Contact your Area Administrative Office for details.)

Covered employment before age 65 is suspendible employment if it meets all of the following conditions. The work must be in:

A trade or craft in which you worked at any time while covered by the Plan before your retirement, and
Any industry covered by the Plan when your retirement benefits begin (even if you never worked in that industry before retirement), and
Any geographic area covered by the Plan when your retirement benefits begin (even if you worked in a different location before retirement).

Non-covered employment (including self-employment) before age 65 is suspendible employment if it meets all of the following conditions. The work must be in:

A trade or craft in which you worked at any time while covered by the Plan before your retirement, and
An industry in which you worked at any time while covered by the Plan before your retirement, and
Any geographic area covered by the Plan when your retirement benefits begin (even if you worked in a different location before retirement).

Hours Limit Rule
Under your Plan's suspension of benefit rules, your pension benefits must be suspended if your return to work in excess of certain hour limits and are under age 65. Under these rules, you lose the right to receive your retirement benefit payment for any calendar month if the hours of suspendible employment you work (or are paid for) equal or exceed your hours limit for that month. Your Plan counts hours that you actually work as well as hours for which you are paid (such as vacation, jury duty, sick leave or other paid hours).

Your hours limits are:

If your reemployment occurs in a month that begins before or includes your 60th birthday, your hours limit is 50. You will forfeit your monthly benefit if you work 50 or more hours of suspendible employment in that month.
If your reemployment occurs anywhere between the month following your 60th birthday and the month ending with your 65th birthday, your hours limit is 85. You will forfeit your monthly benefit if you work 85 or more hours of Suspendible Eemployment in a month.
If your reemployment occurs in a month after your 65th birthday, there is no hours limit. You can work any number of hours and your benefits will not be suspended.

If you are paid on a basis other than hours worked, such as mileage, your hours of suspendible employment are determined using the same formula your employer uses to determine the number of covered hours that require Plan contributions on your behalf.

If the Plan cannot determine your actual hours of suspendible employment, you are charged with the number of hours of suspendible employment for the month equal to your hours limit for that month if:

You receive pay for eight or more days (or separate work shifts) in that month, or
You receive pay for eight or more days (or separate work shifts) in any four-week or five-week payroll period ending within that month.

Employment Reporting Requirements
If you take early retirement and are still under age 65, you must inform your Area Administrative Office whenever you return to any kind of work after retirement—covered or non-covered—even if you believe that work is not suspendible employment. You must provide enough information about your work, including the number of hours worked, for the Plan to determine whether your work is suspendible employment and whether your hours equal or exceed your hours limit in any month. Click here to learn about the hours limits that apply to you.

The easiest way to obtain a written confirmation about your work is to call or write your Area Administrative Office to request a "Request for Evaluation of Reemployment" form. Or, if you have Adobe® Acrobat® Reader on your computer, click on the following to download a copy of the Request for Evaluation of Reemployment form.

Downloadable Form (Adobe Acrobat PDF, 213k)

Once you download the form to your computer, you can print it, fill it in and mail it back to an Area Administrative Office. (You cannot send the form via e-mail)

Once you are age 65 or over, there are no reporting requirements.

If you are subject to the Plan's suspendible employment rules and your Area Administrative Office finds out that you are working and you did not report the work as required, Plan rules assume you are working in suspendible employment at or above your hours limit. Your benefit payments are suspended until you provide your Area Administrative Office with more information about your work. Your benefit payments do not resume unless you provide satisfactory evidence that you worked less than your hours limit each month or that your work is not suspendible employment.

Annual Retiree Certification
If you take early retirement, the Plan sends you an Annual Retiree Certification each year where you must list all work performed in the previous calendar year. The form also authorizes the Plan to get information from Social Security about your work. Plan rules require that you complete and return the Annual Retiree Certification within 30 days. (The annual certification requirement is waived for calendar years after your 65th birthday.) If you are under age 65 and do not return the completed Annual Retiree Certification to your Area Administrative Office by the deadline, your monthly benefits are suspended.

Benefits are also suspended if your completed Annual Retiree Certification shows that you worked in the previous calendar year and were under age 65 but does not provide enough information for the Plan to determine if your work is suspendible employment, or if your hours equaled or exceeded your hours limit in any month.

As long as you are under age 65, suspension of benefits continues until you provide satisfactory evidence that your hours of suspendible employment were less than your hours limit per month or that your work is not suspendible employment.

Suspension of Benefit Payments
If your benefits are suspended because of your reemployment, you are sent a notice of suspension of benefits during the first month for which your benefits are suspended, telling you what is being done and why.

Once your benefits are suspended for reemployment, you lose your right to receive retirement benefits as long as you are under age 65 and continue working in suspendible employment at or above your hours limit per month. If you do receive benefit payments for any months when your hours of suspendible employment equal or exceed your hours limit, you must repay these amounts to the Pension Trust.

You can repay the amounts by check or the Plan deducts amounts you owe from any future benefit payments including benefits payable after your death.

Once your suspendible employment ends, Plan benefits can start up again. However, amounts you still owe are deducted from your first monthly benefit payment. If your first benefit payment is not enough to recover what you owe the Pension Trust, 25 percent of your future benefit payments are withheld until the entire amount is repaid.

Re-Starting Your Suspended Benefits
If your retirement benefit is suspended because you return to employment, your benefits are not re-started until you complete and file a Benefit Resumption Notice with your Area Administrative Office. This notice should be filed once you stop working in suspendible employment, turn age 65 or your hours of suspendible employment fall below your hours limit. You can request this notice from your Area Administrative Office.

Special Rules
If you retired and began receiving Plan benefits before May 1994, only covered employment is considered suspendible employment. If this applies, you can work as much as you want in any non-covered job without triggering a benefit suspension. If you retire and begin receiving Plan benefits after April 1994, special benefit suspension rules may apply if you worked in non-covered employment during May of 1994. They only apply if you have not worked in any covered employment since April of 1994. Your Area Administrative Office can give you more information about these special rules and whether they apply to you.