While most retirees who return to work directly with an ASRS employer wait to do so until they can both work and continue to receive their retirement benefit, there are those who choose to or must suspend their benefit and become contributing members again. When they decide to resume receiving a retirement benefit again, they have to re-retire so their benefit can include the additional service they accrued in their recent employment.
The employer's responsibility in the re-retirement process is similar to what's required when a member retires. All employers who reported contributions for the re-retiring member will be notified to submit an Ending Payroll Verification (EPV) form. However, unlike new retirees where the EPV is not requested until the effective date of retirement, the EPV notification for a re-retiree is sent to the employer as soon as the re-retirement application is received, even if the re-retirement date is in the future.
This is a known technical issue in the re-retirement process that is currently being addressed by our technical services division. While we hope to have this remedied soon, if you receive a pending EPV reminder for a re-retirement in the future, please leave the EPV in the pending queue until the employee has terminated. If you submit the EPV stating "Employee has not terminated yet," the re-retirement application will be returned to a workflow that will automatically generate another EPV. While you will continue to get reminders of the pending EPV, you will not get duplicate requests if the EPV remains in your pending queue.
To help avoid such scenarios, our Retirement Specialists are advising members who contact the ASRS about re-retiring to wait to submit their re-retirement application until they are closer to their retirement date. If you have an employee who is planning on re-retiring, please let them know they do not need to submit their application months in advance. We cannot start processing their re-retirement until the effective date of their re-retirement so submitting an application within 30 days of their re-retirement is sufficient.
by Genevieve McBride, Employer Relations
