employer news

Earlier this year, the Employer Relations Team modified how we offer Employer Basics. The ASRS Employer Basics webinar is essentially a walk-through of the ASRS Employer Manual. We cover topics such as membership eligibility, enrollment processing, contribution reporting, health insurance premium benefits, long term disability, and hiring retirees. Although it was originally offered as a half-day in-person workshop, out of necessity during the pandemic Basics became a series of videos.

One of the first things all ASRS employers should do to assist their employees, is to ensure that they are enrolled with their ASRS employer. Online Enrollment instructions, along with each employer's unique enrollment code, are available under the manage enrollments tab of the Employer Secure Account.

Effective June 28, 2022, Senate Bill 1082 allowed ASRS employers to prepay pension contributions with the ASRS and designated that they may utilize funding to be applied towards employer contribution payments for a self-designated time at some point in the future. The employer may also opt to leave the prepaid contributions, allowing the amount to continue to accrue earnings based on the amount contributed as a prepayment.  This became the Contribution Prepayment Program or CPP.  

The most common issue employer web contact the ASRS about when registering or resetting their password is “My employer’s name is not in the drop-down list. What do I do?” 

Under the statutes governing the Public Safety Personnel Retirement System (PSPRS), and the Arizona State Retirement System (ASRS), a retired PSPRS member who returns to work with an employer participating in the ASRS and receives PSPRS pension payments during such employment is not exempt from membership in ASRS, if the PSPRS retiree otherwise satisfies the ASRS membership requirements during such period of re-employment.

From September through the first week of October, the Employer Relations Team hosted eight virtual Employer Conferences. Last year was our first attempt at incorporating breakout sessions where attendees could customize their conference schedule and pick topics that pertained to their specific responsibilities. We kept that same format again this year with a shorter schedule.

One of the steps ASRS retirees are required to complete when they return to work (RTW) for an ASRS employer is the Working After Retirement smart form, also sometimes referred to as the RTW form, through their myASRS secure account within 30 days of returning to work. This requirement is outlined in Arizona Administrative Code (A.A.C.) R2-8-117 (B).

Upon retirement, an Ending Payroll Verification (EPV) form for the retiring member is requested from all employers who have submitted contributions on behalf of the member within the last three years prior to the member’s effective retirement date. EPV forms are also sent to all employers of a retiring member who has attained the IRS Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) age, regardless of how long ago the member last contributed.

The Check Member Eligibility Tool application was designed for two primary purposes: 

The Employer Relations Team recently rolled out a new format for the ASRS Basics for Employers training. Based on feedback provided by employers after last year’s training, we set about to change ASRS Basics again.