Frequently
Asked Questions
Personal Benefits
Statement Status Chart (When Published)
Every year the Division
of Pensions and Benefits sends a Personal Benefits Statement to
active pension plan members. This statement provides the current
status of your pension account, employer provided benefits, and
an estimate of the value of those benefits.
We hope that your Personal Benefits
Statement proves to be a useful tool in planning for your retirement.
However, it is helpful to think of the statement as a "snapshot"
of your estimated benefits and not as a final calculation. This
is because the statement's estimate program differs from the program
used to calculate your actual retirement and uses the salary reported
by your employer for the quarter preceding the statement date
to project your annual salary, rather than the one year or three
year average salary used when you retire.
If you are within two years of
retirement, you should complete a Request
for Retirement Estimate. You will receive an Estimate
of Retirement Benefits which uses the same method to calculate
your retirement allowance that will be used when you retire. You
may also obtain a computer generated telephone estimate by calling
the Automated Information System at (609) 777-1777.
For more information about your
Personal Benefits Statement, click below on our link to commonly
asked questions.
Frequently
Asked Questions
1. Why
did my last statement give me a higher retirement amount than
this year's?
Your retirement
allowance, in most cases, will be based on your service credit
and the average of your three highest years of salary. Since the
Division of Pensions and benefits issues nearly half million Personal
Benefits Statements each year, we must make a quick calculation
of salary for these statements, rather than search the employee's
salary history for the three highest years of salary. For the
statements, the computer takes the salary you earned in the three
months preceding the statement date and converts it into an annual
salary. With this in mind, there are two principal reasons why
the estimated retirement benefit on the statements would decrease
from one year to the next.
First, if
your salary decreased from what you were earning in the previous
year, the salary used to estimate the benefit would decrease and
cause a corresponding decrease in the estimated retirement allowance.
Second, if
those three months preceding the statement date included a retroactive
salary increase, the computer assumes that the total salary in
the quarter (including the retroactive increase) is the new quarterly
salary. It then converts that inflated quarterly salary into an
inflated annual salary which, in turn, overstates the estimated
retirement allowance. If, in the following year, the quarterly
salary does not include a retroactive increase, the estimated
retirement allowance will be more accurate but will appear to
decrease from the overstated benefit of the previous year.
Be assured
that when you file an application for a retirement allowance,
the Division of Pensions and Benefits will use the actual salaries
reported for you, rather than estimating salary as is done for
the Personal Benefits Statements. If you are within two years
of retirement, you may file a Request for Retirement Estimate
with the Division of Pensions and benefits. Your three highest
years of salary (or final year for some types of retirement) will
be used in calculating such an estimate.
2. Why
did the amount that is contributed by my employer for my benefits
decrease?
Each year the actuaries for the various retirement systems administered
by the Division of Pensions and Benefits review the assets and
liabilities of these systems. Based on the projected retirement
allowances to be paid when members of these retirement systems
retire, they determine how much needs to be paid that year by
employers, after taking into account the contributions received
from members and the return on investment of pension assets, so
that the retirement and death benefits guaranteed by law will
be fully funded. The employers are then billed for their portion
of the liability based on the service credit earned and salary
reported in that year for all of their employees. Because of varying
returns on the investment of the assets of the pension systems,
the employer billing will vary from year to year.
3. I purchased
my temporary service. Why didn't my enrollment date change?
The date you
were enrolled in the pension plan never changes, even if you purchase
credit for service prior to your enrollment date. Your service
credit and average salary, not your enrollment date, will be used
to determine your eventual retirement allowance. The increase
to your service credit from the purchase will be reflected on
your Personal Benefits Statement in the service credit line if
the purchase was made before the statement date.
4. Why
did my total contributions to the pension system decrease?
If you borrow from the retirement system, it reduces your contribution
balance shown as "Your contributions" on the Personal
Benefits Statement. You will note, however, that "Your total
contributions as of..." figure below that, which adds your
loan balance to your contribution balance, increased from last
year's statement.
5.
I work at several different employers. Were my service and
contributions from all employers included in the statement I received?
Since you contribute to the same pension plan through more than
one public employer, you are considered a multiple member of the
pension plan. Although only one Personal Benefits Statement is
prepared for you, the salary from all of the employers who took
pension contributions from you is considered when your Personal
Benefits Statement is prepared.
6.
My statement indicates that I have 24 years, 11.83 months.
I should have 25 years. Why doesn't my statement reflect 25 years?
State employees are paid and pension service credit is accumulated
in biweekly pay periods. However, pension calculations are done
on the basis of months of service. Therefore, the pay periods
of service reported each year must be converted to months of service.
This results in a decimal or partial month of service credit.
Upon retirement, any decimal of 0.1 or higher is rounded up to
an additional month of service credit.
For example,
if a member had credit for 250 pay periods of service as of the
statement date, that would be divided by the 2.175 pay periods
per month to arrive at 114.94 months of service. The 114 months
would be divided by 12 to produce a service of 9.5 years or 9
years and 6 months of service. The remaining decimal would be
added to produce the service shown on the statement of 9 years
and 6.94 months of service. If the member had retired on the statement
date, the service credit used to calculate the retirement allowance
would be 9 years and 7 months of service due to rounding up the
decimal.
7. I am
a veteran. Why isn't "Veteran's Status" checked on my
statement? What should I do?
If we have not placed an "X" in the Veteran Status box
on your Personal Benefits Statement, we do not have proof of your
veteran status on file. To be considered a veteran in the pension
plan you must have been discharged or released from military service
under conditions other than dishonorable. In addition, you must
have completed at least 90 days of active military service with
at least one of the days falling on or within the following dates:
WWII: 9/16/40 - 12/31/46; Korean conflict: 6/23/50 - 1/31/55;
Vietnam conflict: 12/31/60 - 5/7/75.
To be eligible
for veteran status in the post-Vietnam period, you must
have served in Lebanon, Grenada, Panama or the Persian Gulf, or
on ships patrolling the territorial waters of those nations for
at least 14 days with the start of your service falling on or
within the following dates: Lebanon: 9/26-82 - 12/1/87; Grenada:
10/23/83 - 11/21/83; Panama: 12/20/89 - 1/31/90; and the Arabian
Peninsula or aboard ships patrolling the Persian Gulf during the
Operation Desert Storm conflict: 8/20/90 - present. If your service
started prior to the beginning of the periods of hostilities,
you must have served all 14 days within the dates specified.
A photocopy
of your discharge from military service (DD214) showing enlistment
and discharge dates should be sent to the
Division of Military and Veterans Affairs at this address
- NJ Department of Military and Veterans Affairs ATTN: DVP-VBB
PO Box 340 Trenton, New Jersey 08625-0340 to establish your veteran
status - do not send the original.
8.
All other employees received a statement. I did not What should
I do?
If you did not contribute to the retirement system in the three
months preceding the statement date, no statement was prepared
for you. If you were paid during those months, ask your Human
Resources Representative (HR Rep) if all statements have been
distributed. If they have, ask your HR Rep to fax the Request
for Duplicate Statements form to the Division of Pensions and
Benefits requesting a duplicate statement for you. You should
receive your duplicate statement within 4-6 weeks from the time
your HR Rep makes the request.
9.
Will I receive a statement if I terminate employment?
No, if you are not on the payroll in the three months preceding
the statement date, no statement will be issued.
10.
Will I receive a statement if I transfer to another public
employer?
A Personal Benefits Statement will be issued to the employer you
were working for in the three months preceding the statement date.
If you switched employers since then, your former employer is
supposed to forward your Personal Benefits Statement to your new
employer.
11.
What should I do if my Social Security number is incorrect on
my Personal Benefits Statement?
Although we use your membership number in the pension plan to
post your service credit and contributions, we use your social
security number as an alternate method of identifying your account.
Therefore, if the social security number shown on the Personal
Benefits Statement is wrong, you should send us a photocopy of
your social security card with you pension membership number written
at the top.
12.
My birth date is incorrect on my Personal Benefits Statement.
How do I request a correction?
If the "Proof of Birth Date" box is not checked on you
Personal Benefits Statement or if the birth date indicated for
you is incorrect, please send a photocopy of your birth certificate
to the Division of Pensions and Benefits with your Social Security
number written on it.
Before we
can pay you a retirement benefit we must have your birth evidence
on file.
13. Why
does my Personal Benefits Statement have my first name broken
into a first name and a middle initial?
The
Personal Benefits Statement program reads first names as one name
only. Middle names are used as initials. For example, a name such
as Ruth Ann Smith would show on the Personal Benefits Statement
as Ruth A. Smith. If the first name was one name such as Ruthann
Smith, the statement would indicate Ruthann Smith.
If a member would like to know:
The effective date of their
Personal Benefit Statement or
When their statement was printed or
When their statement was mailed to their employer ...
See the Personal
Benefits Statement Status Chart.