Subject

New Tier 6 Benefit Structure for Enrollment in the following Retirement Systems:

• Employees Retirement System (7Y)
• Police and Fire Retirement System (7W)
• New York State Teachers Retirement System (7X)
• New York City Teachers Retirement System (7S)
• New York City Employees Retirement System (7U)
• New York City Education Board Retirement System (7T)

Purpose

Affected Employees

Effective Date(s)

Agency data entry for Tier 6 may begin on April 20, 2012.

Background

On March 16, 2012, the Governor signed legislation creating a new Tier 6 that applies to employees joining a retirement system after March 31, 2012.

Due to the complexity of this legislation and the limited time frame between passage of the legislation and its effective date, the process will be implemented in stages.  The legislation limits the amount of overtime that is considered pensionable and included in the base for calculating contributions.

Effective April 1, 2012, the contribution rate for Tier 6 is 3%. The contribution rate remains at 4% for uniformed court officers/peace officers employed by the Unified Court System and enrolled in the NY State Employees Retirement System 7Y. The contributions remain at 3.5% for enrollees of the NY State Teachers Retirement System 7X.  Further information regarding changes in the contribution rate based on salary and OT limits will be issued at a later date.

There is no change in the enrollment process for the Optional Retirement Program (ORP), Retirement Plan 7Z (TIAA/CREF) at this time.

Changes to new enrollees in the TIAA Retirement System are effective April 2013, and a bulletin with instructions will be issued at that time.

OSC Actions

As a first step, OSC has revised the Retirement Plans Table in PayServ to include Tier 6 as an option in the Benefit Plans listed below.  Any employee designated as Tier 6 by the Retirement System must have the appropriate Tier 6 plan type for the retirement system selected.

The Retirement System Plan Type and corresponding Tier 6 benefit plans are:
New York State Employees Retirement System:

• (7Y)  ERSBT6

 Police and Fire Retirement System:

• (7W) PAFAT6

New York State Teachers Retirement System:

• (7X) TRSBT6

New York City Employees Retirement System:

• (7U) NYECA6, NYECN6 and NYENC6

New York City Education Board Retirement System:

• (7T) NBECA6 and NBECN6

New York City Teachers Retirement System:

• (7S) NYTCA6, NYTCN6 and NYTNC6

OSC will identify any Retirement enrollees with an election date on the Retirement Plans table later than 3/31/2012, and manually update the employee into the appropriate Tier 6 benefit plan.

The process to manually move employees into Tier 6 will begin on April 20, 2012, with an expected completion date of April 25, 2012.

Agency Actions

Effective April 20, 2012, agencies must enter employees into Tier 6 using the instructions below:

1. Open the Retirement Plans page. (Home>Benefits>Enroll In Benefits>Retirement Plans).
   
2. Enter employee's Empl ID in search box.
   
3. Click Search.
   
4. Select the correct Empl Rcd # for the corresponding Job Record (if multiple records exist).
   
5. Enter the “Plan Type” field based on the appropriate retirement system.
   
6. Enter the current payroll period begin date or Hire Date, whichever is              later, in the Deduction Begin Date field.
   
7. Enter the employee’s Date of Membership “Election Date”.
   
8. Enter the appropriate Benefit Plan in the Benefit Plan dependent upon the retirement system. The Police and Fire Retirement System entry (Plan Type 7W) for Tier 6 remains an after tax deduction and is entered as PAFAT6. 
   
9. Enter “6” in the Tier field.
   
10. Enter the employee’s registration number as provided by the retirement system in the Reg Nbr field.
    
11. Enter “Contributing” in the Contribution Status field.
    
12. Enter “SEO” in the Option Code field under “Election Options.”
    
13. Tab to the Percentage field and enter 3.00 (will later be a variable percent based on salary).  The contribution rate for uniformed court officers/peace officers remains 4.00.  The contribution rate remains at 3.5% for the NY State Teachers Retirement System. Also, some benefit plans previously had a default percentage of 3.00. However, there is no default percentage for Tier 6, and agencies must data enter the correct percentage.
    
14. Click Save.
    
    

Questions