18-P-015 Working After Retirement Changes for 2018 (December 22, 2017)

New rules for retirees ‘Working After Retirement’ go into effect on January 1, 2018.  For payroll purposes this would be effective for the pay period of December 17, 2017 to December 30, 2017, paid on January 12, 2018.  The new requirements will result in necessary changes to some of the previous SHARP KPERS benefit plan codes associated with payroll deductions for those employees ‘Working After Retirement.’

Details on which current KPERS benefit plan codes will have a new description for 2018 are listed below.

Current codes AU (Retired Nurses) and ALE (KLETC Instructors) will continue to be used with the current descriptions.  Current codes PR, AW, AD, AB and ABD will be discontinued effective January 1, 2018.

KPERS recently sent out a reminder to agencies to update employee membership codes in the KPERS system.  Agencies may also need to update SHARP effective December 17, 2017 if you have a retiree that is affected by the new rules.  Going forward, employees who are in non-covered positions will need to be enrolled in the ‘ANC’ KPERS benefit plan code.  The definition of a covered vs non-covered position as provided by KPERS is below.

Covered vs Non-Covered

• A non-covered position is seasonal/temporary or requires less than 1,000 hours of work per year.
• A covered position is not seasonal/temporary and requires at least 1,000 hours of work per year.

Retirees working in a covered position should be enrolled in the ‘AC’ KPERS benefit plan code (statutory rate) effective December 17, 2017.  In addition, once the employee has earned $25,000 they need to be enrolled in the ‘AXD’ KPERS benefit plan code (30% rate), effective with the pay period immediately following the period in which the employee crosses the $25,000 earnings threshold, for the remainder of the calendar year.  Agencies are responsible for tracking the $25,000 employee earnings limit and subsequently making the necessary benefit plan code changes in SHARP when the earnings limit has been met.

The attachment to this informational circular is the amended Attachment A to Informational Circular 17-P-024 issued previously on June 21, 2017.  This amendment deletes the Working After Retirement benefit plan codes no longer in use for 2018.

Regents’ institutions are responsible for ensuring these changes are reflected in their individual systems.

DH:NTR:ewb

Attachment
Printable Version of 18-P-015