Purpose

To explain OSC’s automatic processing of the 2009 Blind Veterans annuity increase.

Affected Employees

Pensioners and beneficiaries in Agency 01130, Division of Veterans' Affairs - Blind Veterans Annuity

Background

Pursuant to Executive Law Article 17, Section 362, Subdivision 3, the amount of any annuity payable under this section shall be the same amount as the annuity payable in the preceding year* plus a percentage adjustment equal to the annual percentage increase, if any, for compensation and pension benefits administered by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in the previous year.

* Per the Director of Veterans Affairs the 2009 annuity increase will be based on the rate in effect as of the 9/1/08 annuity decrease (see Payroll Bulletin No. 838).

The 2009 increase is 4.0% per the Director of Veterans Affairs.

Effective Date

The increase is effective 1/1/09; paychecks dated 1/28/09

OSC Actions

On January 21, 2009, OSC will update all pensioner and beneficiary annuities to $1,103.48 on the Job Data page effective 1/1/09.

The Action/Reason codes of Pay Rate Chg/SAC (Mass Salary Increase) will be used for all rows.

OSC also will update any subsequent rows as necessary using the action/Reason codes of Pay Rate Chg/CSL (Correct Salary).

Control-D Report

The following Control-D report will run the Thursday morning after the payment has been processed to identify employees who automatically received the increase.

• NHRP704 Mass Salary Payment Report
  This report identifies all recipients who received the Annuity Increase and identifies all of the recipient’s annuities that were automatically increased. Other fields on the report include the EmplID, Employee Record Number, Employee Name, Eff Date Grade, Bargaining Unit, Pay Basis Code, Part-time Percentage, Action Reason, Old Comp Rate, New Comp Rate and Increment Code.

Questions

Questions about this Bulletin may be directed to your Payroll Auditor.