The amount of your retirement benefit depends upon your time in service and your average final salary. Service that counts toward determining your benefit is called “service credit.”
Service credit is earned based on the total compensated time reported by the State Patrol on your behalf. You receive one service credit month for each calendar month in which you receive salary for 70 or more hours. No more than one service credit month may be earned during any calendar month, even if you receive salary for more than 70 hours.
Service credit years are calculated by dividing your total service credit months by 12.
You may be eligible to purchase service credit for time spent in the military by paying member contributions plus interest. To qualify you must leave WSPRS-covered employment to enter active military service and resume WSPRS-covered employment after your military service. You must complete payment of these contributions five years from the time you resume employment or prior to retirement, whichever comes first. Contact DRS for further information.
Effective July 24, 2005, a member who becomes totally incapacitated for continued employment as a result of service in the uniformed services of the United States, or the surviving spouse of a member who dies while serving in the uniformed services of the United States may apply for interruptive military service credit. The member or eligible spouse or children would pay only the employee contributions. Contact DRS for more information.
If you become disabled and you receive disability benefits from the State Patrol, you may be eligible to acquire service credit for the period of disability. To qualify for service credit, you must return to active duty as a commissioned officer with the State Patrol, pay the member contributions, plus interest, on the salary you would have received if you had not been disabled, and complete payment within five years of your return to active duty or prior to your retirement, whichever comes first. Contact DRS for more information.
When you have five or more service credit years in WSPRS, you have a vested right to a retirement benefit when you meet the plan’s age requirement, even if you leave covered employment. Your benefit will depend in part on how many service credit years you have earned. See “What is my service retirement benefit?”
If you withdraw your contributions and terminate your membership, you give up your right to retirement benefits.