FAST FACTS
- After retirement, you may continue to receive your pension benefit while working at a new job as long as the work is not in Prohibited Employment for 40 or more hours in a month.
- If you do work in Prohibited Employment for 40 or more hours in any month after retirement, your pension will not be paid for that month.
- It is your responsibility to notify the Fund Office of any work in Prohibited Employment.
- Prohibited Employment is work in the industry, trade or craft, and geographical area in which employees were earning credit under then Plan when you retired.
- These rules do not apply once you have reached age 70 ½.
When you retire and begin to receive benefits under the Pension Plan (except if you retire on a Disability Pension), you may continue to work without any limits on your right to receive your pension benefits as long as the work is not in Prohibited Employment for 40 or more hours in a month. However, you will not be considered to be engaged in Prohibited Employment, and may continue to work while receiving your pension benefits, during any period of work after reaching age 70 ½.
Prohibited Employment is work in the industry, trade or craft, and geographic area in which employees were performing covered employment under the Plan when you retired. For example, you cannot receive a pension benefit under this Plan for any month in which you performing 40 or more hours of electrical work, whether union or non-union, in the jurisdictional area of IBEW Local No. 26.
If you work in Prohibited Employment for 40 or more hours in any month after retirement, your pension will not be paid for that month. You are required to notify the Fund Office within 15 days of your return to Prohibited Employment, regardless of how many hours you are working.
The Trustees may periodically require you to provide evidence that you are not employed in Prohibited Employment after retirement. If you fail to provide this proof, your benefits may be suspended as of the first day of the third month after you were requested to provide proof. Your benefit payments will resume on the first day of the second month following the month you provide satisfactory proof to the Trustees that you are not working in Prohibited Employment If you are found to be working in Prohibited Employment and you have not notified the Trustees of such work, the Fund may presume that you have been working in Prohibited Employment since your employer began work at that site, and that you have been working at least 40 hours per month. It will be your responsibility to prove otherwise, and your benefits may be suspended based on these presumptions until you do.
If you received any benefit payments for any months in which you were working in Prohibited Employment for 40 or more hours, you must pay back to the Plan the amount of the benefits improperly received. If you have not repaid the entire amount owed to the Plan by the time that you once again retire and are ready to resume receiving your pension, the Plan will deduct the amount required to be repaid from your monthly pension. The amount to be deducted from each monthly check will not exceed 25% of the regularly scheduled payment, except that there is no limit on the amount that can be deducted from the first check to be paid to you when your benefits resume.
You may request from the Trustees a determination as to whether a particular job you are considering is classified as Prohibited Employment.
Should your pension be suspended for any month, you will be notified in writing by the Trustees of the specific reasons for the suspension. You have a right to appeal the suspension if you believe it was made in error.