THE SURS board’s emergency ruling addresses an unintended glitch in the State’s new pension law, and guarantees that the retirement benefits employees have earned as of June 30, 2014, will not be reduced – even if they retire months or years later.
BEFORE THE ruling, those benefit levels under “money purchase” would have been locked in as of June 30, 2013, eliminating a year of contributions and interest, and creating an incentive for employees to retire, whether they wanted to or not.
“I AM grateful to the SURS board for its decision to correct the “money purchase” problem, and its efforts to curb large-scale retirements that would have cut deeply into the quality of our academic and research missions, and our service to students and the State,” President Robert Easter wrote in an email to the University. “I also want to thank House Speaker Michael Madigan, whose letter to SURS helped clarify the legislature’s intent to preserve money purchase benefits that have already been earned. And I want to thank University of Illinois Board of Trustees Chairman Christopher Kennedy and Avijit Ghosh, my senior advisor, for their leadership on this critical issue and their commitment to our employees by personally attending the SURS board meeting and advocating on behalf of employees at the state’s public universities.”
SEE ALSO:
FLAW IN pension law sparks retirements. See Chicago Tribune, April 29: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2014-04-29/news/ct-university-retirements-met-20140429_1_pension-law-pension-changes-state-universities-retirement-system.
RECORD NUMBER seek retirement. See UIC News, April 29: http://news.uic.edu/retirement-applications-counseling-on-the-rise.
RULE CHANGE will protect pensions, prevent
University brain drain. See Chicago Sun-Times,
May 8: http://www.suntimes.com/news/27319181-418/rule-change-will-protect-pensions-prevent-university-brain-drain.html#.U3oxeBBdWTN
EMPLOYEES
CAN “unretire.” See UIC News, May 20: http://news.uic.edu/judges-ruling-halts-pension-law
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