Chapter 504 had broad effects on New York State public retirement systems. Individuals who became TRS members after December 10, 2009, but before April 1, 2012, are affected as follows:

• Members who are represented by the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) become vested after they have ten years of service credit. (Note: This provision was superseded by Chapter 56 of the Laws of 2022, which changed the vesting requirement to five years.)
• Members who participate in the Age 55 Retirement Program ("55/27" participants) will make pension contributions of 4.85% of gross pensionable compensation until they have 27 years of service credit, and contributions of 1.85% of gross pensionable compensation after reaching 27 years of service credit.

In addition, Chapter 504 affected certain members regardless of their membership date: For all participants in the Tax-Deferred Annuity (TDA) Program who are serving in (or resigned/retired from) UFT-covered titles, the annual interest rate paid by the Fixed Return Fund is 7% as of December 11, 2009.

Note: Chapter 504 also established a new tier—Tier V—for New York State public retirement systems and the Optional Retirement Program (available to CUNY employees). This change did not apply to TRS.

Chapter 504 had broad effects on New York State public retirement systems. Individuals who became TRS members after December 10, 2009, but before April 1, 2012, are affected as follows:

• Members who are represented by the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) become vested after they have ten years of service credit. (Note: This provision was superseded by Chapter 56 of the Laws of 2022, which changed the vesting requirement to five years.)
• Members who participate in the Age 55 Retirement Program ("55/27" participants) will make pension contributions of 4.85% of gross pensionable compensation until they have 27 years of service credit, and contributions of 1.85% of gross pensionable compensation after reaching 27 years of service credit.

In addition, Chapter 504 affected certain members regardless of their membership date: For all participants in the Tax-Deferred Annuity (TDA) Program who are serving in (or resigned/retired from) UFT-covered titles, the annual interest rate paid by the Fixed Return Fund is 7% as of December 11, 2009.

Note: Chapter 504 also established a new tier—Tier V—for New York State public retirement systems and the Optional Retirement Program (available to CUNY employees). This change did not apply to TRS.

DOE/Charter School employees whose TRS membership date is after February 27, 2008: As a participant in the Age 55 Retirement Program, you are initially required to contribute 4.85% of your gross pensionable compensation to the QPP.

If your membership date is after February 27, 2008 and before December 11, 2009, your QPP contributions would be reduced to 1.85% once you have attained 10 years of membership or credited service, and would continue until you have attained 27 years of Total Service Credit. If your membership date is after December 10, 2009, your QPP contributions would be reduced to 1.85% once you have attained 27 years of Total Service Credit, and would continue until you retire.

CUNY employees: You are required to contribute 3% of your gross pensionable compensation to the QPP until you have attained 10 years of membership or credited service.

DOE/Charter School employees who are participating in the Age 55 Retirement Program: If your membership date is before February 28, 2008, you are required to contribute 4.85% of your gross pensionable compensation to the QPP until you have attained 10 years of membership or credited service. Your QPP contributions would then be reduced to 1.85% and would generally continue until you have attained 25 years of Total Service Credit.

DOE/Charter School employees who did not "opt in" to the Age 55 Retirement Program: You are required to contribute 3% of your gross pensionable compensation to the QPP until you have attained 10 years of membership or credited service.

The regular pension portion of your retirement allowance is calculated based on factors such as your Total Service Credit and Final Average Salary (FAS), as indicated below.

The second portion of your retirement allowance is based on your Annuity Savings Accumulation Fund (ASAF) balance. An ASAF account contains monthly supplemental contributions that the Department of Education provides to certain eligible employees who reach the maximum of their salary schedule. At retirement, any ASAF funds you have are transferred into an Annuity Reserve Accumulation Fund (ARAF), which is paid as part of your retirement allowance.

For more information, please see the I am a Tier VI member, how would my Final Average Salary (FAS) be calculated? FAQ above.

Your payability date is generally the date on which you become eligible to receive a retirement allowance. If you are eligible for immediate payment of a retirement allowance, your payability date would be the same as your effective retirement date. However, if the receipt of your retirement allowance is deferred, your payability date would be either a) the date that you are eligible to begin receiving retirement allowance payments, or b) a subsequent date that you designate for payments to begin.

You may generally file your retirement application no sooner than 90 days before your effective retirement date, and TRS must receive your application no later than 1 day before your effective retirement. However, if you are a Tier I or Tier II member who wants to retire under a deferred payability, it would be in your best interest to file your retirement application as soon as you leave service. Your initial payability date will be deferred until the date you would have received 25 years of service credit had you remained in service. Once TRS receives your retirement application, we will begin counting towards the 25-year service credit date. For example, a 62-year-old member leaves service after acquiring 20 years of service credit. Five more years must elapse before the member can begin receiving deferred retirement payments, but TRS does not begin counting down those five years until we receive that member's retirement application. If the member were to wait five years and then file an application, five additional years would have to elapse before the member can receive deferred retirement payments.

When an in-service Tier I member dies before becoming eligible for retirement under the Qualified Pension Plan (QPP), the death benefit would equal the member's Annuity Savings Fund (ASF) balance, Increased-Take-Home-Pay (ITHP) balance, and an amount based on his/her salary and years of Total Service Credit.

The following table shows how the member's Total Service Credit affects the death benefit payable.

Note: The member's salary is the average annual salary in the year immediately before the date of death. It is generally not affected by any approved leaves of absence with or without pay.

If the member was eligible for a service retirement at the time of death, or died within the first 30 days after retiring, the death benefit would be the greater of the amount indicated in the first paragraph above or a benefit based on the reserves that would have been payable under Option I Modified had the member retired on the day before he or she died. (Option I Modified is a retirement payment option that provides a lump-sum benefit to the designated beneficiary based on the member's available pension reserves.)

If you choose to retire earlier than normal retirement age, an age-reduction factor may be applied to your service retirement allowance, depending on your tier and retirement program.

Tier I Members

Age reductions would not apply if you are at least age 55 at your payability date. You may retire before age 55 (with an age-reduction factor) if you have at least 30 years of Total Service Credit. The chart below shows the percentage of the full benefit that you would receive in this case:

Tier II, III^, and IV Members

The chart below shows the percentage of the full benefit that you may receive if you retire before age 62 with less than 30 years of Total Service Credit. (^Please note that different age-reduction factors would apply to retirements under Tier III. However, those factors are rarely used and not shown below because Tier III members normally retire under Tier IV.)

Note: Age reductions would not apply to members who retire with at least 30 years of Total Service Credit. Participants in the Age 55 Retirement Program who retire after meeting the requirements of this program would also not be subject to age reductions; for more information, please see the What is the Age 55 Retirement Program? FAQ above.

Tier VI Members

The chart below shows the percentage of the full benefit that you may receive if you retire before age 63.

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Direct Payments: Death benefits received as a direct payment are generally federally taxable and may be subject to state and local taxes for the year in which the benefit is distributed. The IRS requires that TRS withhold tax from death benefits as indicated below:

• 20% of the taxable portion of all rollover-eligible payments that are paid directly to the claimant. (However, the claimant may elect a higher percentage be withheld.)
• 10% of all payments not eligible for rollover that are paid directly to the claimant. (However, the claimant may elect a different percentage, including zero, be withheld.)
• 30% of a payment made to a claimant who is not required to file U.S. income taxes due to foreign citizenship (unless the claimant’s country has a different tax withholding arrangement with TRS).

Continuing Monthly Payments: You can elect a W-4P federal tax withholding rate while you are filing your online death benefit claim. If you do not make an online election, taxes will be withheld at the rate for a single person with no adjustments, as required by the IRS.

If you are requesting a reissue of a check representing a lump-sum death benefit from TRS, you can your last name and password to log in to the Claimant Portal on TRS’ website and request a reissued check. You can make this online request no later than April of the calendar year following the disbursement of your benefit payment. (If you never logged on and your claim code has expired, you may be able to request a new claim code by calling TRS.)

If you do not have access to the secure section of our website, you will need to file an Affidavit for Check Reissue Request (code BK2).

If you are unsure if you have outstanding funds due you, you may access the Unclaimed Funds feature in the Resources section. This lists checks issued by TRS that have not yet been cashed after at least 90 days.

If your missing check was cashed, TRS will mail a copy of the cancelled check to you. If you still suspect that a check was stolen, you can file an Affidavit for Forged Check (code BK1).