EARLY RETIREMENT PENSION
If you want to retire before age 60, and don't qualify for a Service Pension, you may be able to retire on an Early Retirement Pension as early as age 55. Monthly payments for early retirement will be lower than for a Regular
Pension depending on your age when you retire and the amount of Pension Credit you have at that time.
Eligibility.
You are eligible for an Early Retirement Pension if you meet all of the following requirements:
1. You are at least age 55 and not yet 60 (you would be eligible for a Regular Pension at age 60); AND
2. You have earned at least 10 years of Pension Credit (Past and Future);AND
3. You have earned at least one Benefit Unit.
How Early Retirement Will Affect the Amount of Your Pension Payments.
With an Early Retirement Pension, you will receive less than the Regular Pension amount because you are retiring at an earlier age and, therefore, the chances are you will be receiving pension benefits for a longer time.
For those retiring on or after January 1, 1985, to determine what the monthly payments will be with an Early Retirement Pension, the first step is to figure out what the amount would be if you were age 60 and were retiring on a Regular Pension with the same amount of service (section on Pension Amounts begins on page 13).
The second step is to determine the percentage of the Regular Pension amount you will receive if you take an Early Retirement Pension on and after January 1, 1985. These percentages are shown in the following table:
Age on Effective------------------Percentage of
55-----------------------------------85%
To determine what your monthly payment with Early Retirement will be, multiply the amount you would be eligible to receive on a Regular Pension at age 60 by the percentage shown for the age at your last birthday before retirement. This would then be adjusted upwards for any fraction of a year you might be past your birthday at the time.
NOTE: That would give you your "basic benefit": it would be further adjusted to account for the Basic Husband-and-Wife Pension, if married, or any other options you may choose (explained in section on Pension Amounts).
Example: An unmarried Electrician has 15 years of Future Service Pension Credit at the beginning of 1994, when he reaches age 57 and decides to take his pension at that birthday. If he waited until he was age 60 and retired on Regular Pension with the same service, he would be eligible for a monthly payment of $1,140.00 (15 Benefit Units x $76.00). Since he is taking Early Retirement with payments starting at age 57, his payments will be 91 % of Regular Pension benefit, or $1,037.50 per month after rounding to the next higher multiple of 50 cents.
If you retired on an Early Retirement Pension prior to January 1, 1985, a different table of percentages is used to determine the percentage of Regular Pension you would receive. If you would like to know how your pension was calculated at that time, please see page 52 of the Rules or contact the Administrative Office for additional details.
No matter when you retire, if you take the Joint and Survivor Option or if you are married and take the Basic Husband-and-Wife Pension or other option, this would result in a further adjustment as explained in those sections.
Date of Pension ------------------Regular Pension
56-----------------------------------88%
57-----------------------------------91%
58-----------------------------------94%
59-----------------------------------97%