Monday, March 9, 2009

Retire at age 65 and continue to work

A NYCERS member who retires (service, not disability) at age 65, or later, can continue to work for a New York State government entity and not have his/her pension suspended. See Section 212 of the NYS RSSL. Of course the retiree doesn't earn any pension credit after he/she retires.

By the way a retirement application filed with NYCERS is not a resignation letter filed with your employer. But always be very careful with your employer, he/she has the capability to cause you a lot of problems. You don't want to be in the position of trying to force him/her to put you back on the payroll after he/she has improperly terminated you.

Currently two of the city's major commissioners (Fire and Sanitation) are doing just that. They retired after 65 and continued to work for the city.

It's good deal for the city and the retiree. The city gets quality work without paying any pension costs and only one health insurance payment. The city might even avoid paying FICA taxes. The retiree gets a full salary and a full pension. Why should the private sector get a well trained employee.

Back to retirees, once a service retiree reaches age 65, he/she can return to work in the NYS public sector without any reduction in his/her pension.

Of course before age 65 there is a $30,000/year limit on earnings in the NYS public sector. Once the retiree earns more than that, his/her pension is suspended for the rest of the year. It is reinstated the next January, if NYCERS has all its ducks in a row.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I was wondering how employee earnings are interepreted. If an employee returns to work after retirement and defers a percentage into the 457 or 401, are those monies still considered part of the base that go against the 212 limitation?